The theme of this year’s Winter School is Rebuilding Communities and Solidarity — a broad, overarching theme that will likely require further exploration beyond the School. The community is where the working class lives and where its social reproduction takes place daily. This year’s theme provides an opportunity to revisit and unpack the meaning of ‘community’, to explore what constitutes a community, and to examine the social processes that shape it.

The School will focus on key social institutions involved in social reproduction, such as family households, schools, churches, orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) centres, and others. It will also consider gendered relationships, the role of women, parenting, and relationships between children, caregivers, and neighbours. Family households, in particular, serve as microcosms of broader social relations and offer insight into the conditions of the working class.

A central focus will be the breakdown of social bonds within communities. What forms the social fabric that holds communities together? How have these bonds changed over the past 30 years, and how can they be rebuilt or strengthened today? Through this theme, the School will reflect on the nature of community ties and begin the process of reimagining solidarity in the current context.