A message board from the future: Signals of mutual aid futures from U.S. based organizers during COVID-19

Abstract

Foresight practice can help societies creatively imagine and prepare for possible futures. The current qualitative study uses a foresight lens to consider the ways communities in the Western United States use mutual aid as a collective care strategy and preparative tool to address social justice challenges. Using Dator’s (2009) four futures framework, this study constructed four future scenarios through the creation of composite personas which exemplify scenario archetypes (growth, constraint, collapse, and transformation). The researchers used data from interviews of mutual aid participants and organizers (N = 25) during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic about the future of mutual aid in 5–10 years. Using these interviews, researchers constructed an artifact of a message board where each composite persona exemplifies what happens 10 years post-COVID-19 through a series of message board forums. The paper ends with implications for the use of foresight practice to help prepare researchers, practitioners, and educators interested in understanding mutual aid as community-based solution to the complex crises to come.