Building Solidarity Economies (BSE)

Building Solidarity Economies (BSE) is a set of collaborative research, teaching and learning projects. We utilize engaged pedagogy and community-based ethnographic methods to explore, connect, and advance conditions for other economies and other ways of being in the world. BSE strives to embody and organize around interdependence and relational care.

BSE survives and thrives through creative logistics and partnerships, small grants, and gifts from alumni and supporters. These gifts help to cover costs like student travel for research and site visits, travel costs for our research collaborators, institutional costs for various events, student research support, and various other costs and incidentals.

“BSE was a turning point in my education, challenging my perception that devoted scholars must be detached from real-world struggles to focus on academics. BSE teaches at the intersection of theory and practice and through this shifts students’ perspectives from being hopeless in our society to understanding that other economies are possible."

–Dylan Hatch, class of ‘22

"It was such a joy to get to collaborate with the students at BSE. The students helped us answer questions that have been challenging our community land trust for years, and they presented their findings in ways that were tangible, applicable, and incredibly useful on the ground. Some ways BSE has supported our work have included researching funding models for grassroots nonprofits (including offering specific funder recommendations), creating zines that communicate the contents of complex legal agreements in really straightforward ways that help our community understand our Ground Leases, researching different models of multiracial organizing that center Black, brown, and Indigenous power, and researching models for grassroots affordable housing on decommodified land. BSE really pushes beyond the boundaries of what I thought was possible within academia. I feel inspired by the power that we can build when academia works in solidarity with social movements! I’m grateful for the energy, brilliance, creativity and dedication the students brought to the work; every student from BSE I’ve met is an incredible community organizer."

-Jesse Saffeir, Land in Common Co-Director