Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T17:05:30.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - Solidarity

A Short History from the Concept’s Beginnings to the Present Situation

from Part I - Transnational Solidarity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 July 2020

Helle Krunke
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Hanne Petersen
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Ian Manners
Affiliation:
University of Copenhagen
Get access

Summary

This chapter focuses on the history of the concept solidarity, and from this overview tries to find a effective use of it in the twenty-first century. As early as the sixteenth century, French lawyers spoke of solidarité, a word that corresponds to the English ‘joint and several liability’, or what we in common parlance call ‘all for one and one for all’. The concept solidarity starts with the French philosopher, Charles Fourier, in 1808 and becomes a central concept in radical political thought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The provisional rules of the First Workers’ International spoke of ‘solidarity among workers of various trades in every country’. Also, some Catholic philosophers used the word ‘solidarity’ but saw it as an equivalent of ‘charity’. This is a very different use of the term, making it traditional rather than radical. Now we live in a period of a rapidly increasing inequality, catastrophic climate change, a militant world-wide neo-nationalism and ‘alternative facts’ against which solidarity as a common goal through which to create a more just, egalitarian, climate-neutral world is of utmost importance.

Type
Chapter
Information
Transnational Solidarity
Concept, Challenges and Opportunities
, pp. 11 - 21
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×