Despite a widespread diagnosis that solidarity is in crisis, appeals to solidarity are ubiquitous today. We encounter them on the level of personal and professional relations but also with regard to institutions and systems of social security and welfare. They gain a dramatic character when human lives are in danger, e.g. when refugees have to cross the Mediterranean in floating death traps or when climate change or a pandemic is devastating the livelihood of whole populations. In all these cases, appeals to solidarity are invoking a ‘we’: We, the family or friends; we, the co-workers or professionals of our branch; we, the members of a national community or a social collective; we, leftists or members of a political movement; we, human beings … How can the materialist foundations of actual solidarity be rethought without falling back into tacit assumptions of social homogeneity? Class, gender, race, nation, and even humanity have all lost their status as unquestioned points of reference. Appeals to solidarity hence run into an uncertainty concerning the foundations of solidarity. Is solidarity the result of a shared form of life or of collective practices? Does it stem from similar experiences or a common situation? Is it marked by adversity or a common enemy? Or is it the effect of a shared commitment to a common cause? Given the effects of sexism and racism, theories of “solidarity” have to take into account the complex contradictions of capitalist societies which divide subaltern and exploited groups on the domestic level as well globally. The summer school will involve plenary lectures by leading international theorists of solidarity, reading sessions, smaller group discussions and panel debates. Students who wish to participate in the summer school for credit are invited to submit a precis of their take on core concerns of solidarity as well as their background knowledge and a short CV (each document 1 page max.). Please send your application by April 1, 2021, by email to: CTsummerschool@hu-berlin.de. You can also contact robin.celikates@fu-berlin.de with any questions. close