Catherine Wells

My dissertation asks how citizens sustain democratic life together when the state and market fail to meet basic needs. Democratic life, I maintain, includes collective efforts by citizens to reclaim control over the conditions of their own lives. 

I explore the world of grassroots mutual aid organizing, where neighbors freely and habitually share food, medical supplies, and other necessities in all-volunteer and consensus-based networks. 

Using in-depth interviews and participant observation with activists in Inland Southern California, I argue that care work is itself a form of democratic action, not merely a stopgap before “real” politics begins.