On October 22, 2020, we are honoured to be invited to Anastasia Kavada’s talk （Creating a hyperlocal infrastructure of care: COVID-19 mutual aid groups and digital media ）The topic of our seminar was exploring care in relation to the coronavirus 19 mutual aid group and the ultra-local infrastructure of digital media. Dr Kavada is currently a scholar in the School of Media and Communication at the University of Westminster.
Dr Kavada told the audience that there are currently 4216 mutual aid groups in the UK, and there are such groups all around us. As the name suggests, mutual aid groups have two key terms: digital infrastructure care and mutual aid. Digital infrastructure refers to all kinds of technologies or digital devices, such as Whatsapp that people are using to communicate and organise. Digital infrastructure helps promote interpersonal relationships and social teams, which is of great help to mutual aid groups.
The activity of caring can be divided into four mutual assistance phases. The first is caring about , which involves determining the care needs you need to meet. The second is caring for , which includes taking responsibility for providing care(caring receiving). The third is caring giving. The fourth is the response of the main recipient to provide feedback. In other words, mutual aid groups are not the responsibility of a small group of people, they are part of civil rights and responsibilities.
Mutual assistance is a characteristic that human society should always have. What is certain is that it will be difficult to support each other rather than fight each other in the progress of human morality. But the meaning of the existence of mutual aid groups is that we have this ethics of mutual help, while also getting help from others.
Dr Kavada called on people to help each other at the seminar， because a large number of public opinion surveys showed that mutual help can better understand some groups in need. According to Dr Kavada’s description, a mutual aid group is a very fair organizational model. There is no leader, only a group of people working together， because this is usually to save others. They both give and receive.
At the end of the seminar, Dr. Kavada introduced some media software commonly used by mutual aid groups, which focused on the digital media of mutual aid groups: Whatsapp and Facebook. Every digital software has different advantages and disadvantages. Combining their functions and using them together can help mutual aid groups to carry out their work to the greatest extent.
In general, mutual aid organizations are a good way to get to know each other for the coronavirus 19 outbreak around the world. There may be many people in need of help in a certain part of the world, and the members of the mutual aid team can help them in time through the digital media created. The practice of caring means that we take on more responsibilities and provide care for others.