On 3 and 4 May, the Graduate Institute’s Gender Centre organised "Bubbling up. Solidarities, Feminisms and Social Reproduction", a conference exploring how production, exchange and redistribution practices based on solidarity are taking root around the world.

The conference presented the results of a SNIS funded research project coordinated by Christine Verschuur, which analyses solidarity initiatives in a feminist perspective, with the participation of six research teams from Latin America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil) and India (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala) and UNRISD.

"It’s important to search for alternatives to the dominating economy which we have now", says feminist economist Lourdes Benería, Professor Emerita at Cornell University's Department of City and Regional Planning, "and the SSE is one alternative which we see appearing around the world in different forms."

"SSE is something we already do in a limited way, because we support women’s groups who organise themselves and create alternatives for livelihoods", said Nalini Nayak, an economist, feminist activist and leader of SEWA – Self Employed Women's Association - Kerala, India. Attending the conference meant "the concept of a more feminist understanding of work and of care has become clearer to me in an integrated fashion."

The event was organised with the support of the Swiss Network of International Studies, Institut de recherche pour le développement (IRD-France) and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. Discover the programme and watch a short video below with Lourdes and Nalini, as well as Miriam Nobre from Brazilian feminist organization SOF.