Endnotes
[1] We work from political theorist Joan Tronto’s conceptions of care, first articulated with Bernice Fischer in the text “Toward a Feminist Theory of Caring” (1990) and then further developed in her books, which we recommend for further reading: Moral Boundaries: a Political Argument for an Ethics of Care (1993) and Caring Democracy: Markets, Equality, and Justice (2013).
[2] Communicative capitalism is defined by Jodi Dean, which refers to the period of late capitalism in which we see the employment of the values, attributes, and actions central to democracy taking material form in networked communication technologies ("Communicative Capitalism and Class Struggle", Spheres Journal, 2014). Further reading, Communicative Capitalism: circulation and the foreclosure of politics (Cultural Politics, March 2005), and Blog Theory: Feedback and Capture in the Circuits of Drive (Polity, 2010).
[3] Which is stereotypical of the domestic household and nuclear family structure, e.g., two adult wage earners in a romantic partnership in a permanent residence occupied by them alone and/or with their children.
[4] For further reading on the relations between industrialization and nuclear family, The Social System by Talcott Parsons.
[5] Further reading, Cultures of Intimacy and Care Beyond ‘the Family’: Personal Life and Social Change in the Early 21st Century by Roseneil & Budgeon.
[6] In Europe, the Boomer generation elderly with sufficient money are inspiring new conceptions of co-housing; as well as some combined solutions in expensive urban areas, such as young people/students paired with elderlies, and artistic provocations like MANY. Similarly, Boomer-counterpart in have self-initiated group caring for aging peers (‘抱团养老’), i.e., the elderly who own large houses invite others online to live together with cheap or no rent.
[7] Social welfare and the commodity market have supplemented the family as the informal system of care over different periods of socio-economic organizations between the nation-state and industry. However, much formal community support, such as social workers, lacks in funding and operations design for sufficiently robust systems to provide the necessary and desirable forms care.
[8] Further read on our take on this section
[9] Our network is inspired by the meshnet (or mesh network), which is a local network that is maintained by multiple adjacent nodes (i.e. bridges, switches, and other infrastructure devices), which connect and exchange directly, dynamically, and non-hierarchically without necessarily connecting to the Internet. An important feature for meshnet is that the local network does not cease to function if one or several nodes get offline, as the network will immediately redistribute the data and exchanges among the remaining ones. We take the meshnet feature of blockchain, which shared by many other network technologies, to imagine a meshnet of long-term caring relationship, which theoretically can ensure the robustness of a social safety net that is made of multiple long-term caring relationships.
[10] Our use of Individuation departs from Jungian psychology while referencing Bernard Stiegler’s assessment between the individuals and technological objects. For further information on individuation and how it relates to technology and society, see Stiegler’s For a New Critique of Political Economy (2010), Gilbert Simondon’s On the Mode of Existence of Technical Objects (French 1958, English translation 2016), and Yves Citon’s The Ecology of Attention (2014).
[11] Its monetized value links to the communal fund of a Relationship contract. The monetized value is determined by an internally agreed-upon exchange rate or by the amount of money that is agreed upon with the subsidy policy.
[12] The social-driven authentication method is constructed on top of the Social Proof-of-Work method that is proposed by the D-CENT project (see https://dcentproject.eu/). According to their research paper, ‘Design of Social Digital Currency Publication’ (p28), Social Proof-of-Work is "proof that a member in the system is endowed with coins as a reward to an action in the real world while abiding to community rules and enhancing collective values."
[13] We start with six connections based on the six degrees of separation speculation, that most people are connected within six people or less. Proof-of-Relations also refers to the ‘authentication’ method of civil union, which asks family relatives and community members to witness the process of binding before marriage become a government institution. In our first pilot, we will test this count to determine whether it is reasonable and effective for our purposes.
[14] The process for users to determine whether the activity is complete is still being determined in community research, although we anticipate for the steps to be more nuanced and open than a notice and confirmation-button mechanism.
[15] The Checkpoint embraces the changing nature of every relationship. It is important that people are given the space to reflect on their relationship status and pay attention to how they feel in relation to the status of the relationship.
[16] Although recognizing the one-year limitation can be contradicted to the mobility context, we decided to begin our experiment with this limitation mostly concerning the fact that the CS-2 and CC-3 contracts involve financial planning, which requires stability and working alongside with financial calendars. Another consideration is to raise the thresholds to reproduce the short-term exchanges exist in the sharing economy. However, plans that require a shorter period can be supplemented by Activity contracts.
[18] Please note that because we have not yet started conducting field research with communities, the numbers in the examples are conceptual and demonstrative. The web application is currently under development.
[19] While “in the mind” might seem counterintuitive to work that is physical and emotional, we aim to reinforce the deep processing connection between our physical responses to our mental translations. For one set of recent scientific studies on this topic, we refer you to polyvagel theory.
[20] We will determine a frame for accounting for time and establishing minimum and maximum with community research.
[21] Studies reveal that the relationship between multitasking / fragmented time spent and burnout. Further read on 'Decade data reveals heavy multitaskers reduced memory, psychologist says' and 'Mental mayhem peril multitasking medicine'.
[22] The term ‘the Self' we use largely refers to the innate personality and psyche that may not immediately subjected to change to and is composed of the id, the ego, and the super-ego, whereas ‘the self-concept’ is one’s perception and evaluation about themselves, which is relatively more dynamic and socially influenced.
[23] The points we made about the relations between the Self (identity), fantasy and relationships with others, are inspired by Slavoj Žižek’s series of analysis on love, the most intense drive, or product of interpersonal relationships. Most succinctly put, he said "all too often, when we love somebody, we don’t accept him or her as what the person effectively is. We accept him or her insofar as this person fits the coordinates of our fantasy." (The Pervert's Guide to Cinema, 2006). Here is a summary of his take on love in relations to modern politics, https://philosophynow.org/issues/77/Zizek_on_Love. Additionally, we refer you to bell hook’s All About Love: New Visions (2000).
[24] The process for this is still being considered.
[25] Importantly, the network has an inclusive approach to the participation of people within local communities, who might be otherwise denied official legal recognition, sets of rights, or have difficulty in accessing resources to which they are entitled as a member of a community, without restraint by their official legal status. We consider the digital translation of the law as an opportunity to rethink many conventions that have been assumed in the law in order to propose new propositions through digital code.
[26] This is a function we anticipate to have and logically exist within the system environment. Yet its realization requires substantial legal and policy research, which we have not yet begun.
[27] The process for users to determine if the consent from each of them for a transaction is still being determined based on community research.
[28] The system is thus far only connecting P2P care relationships with organizations and governments. We are aware of the potential needs of how a group/cooperative can practically use the MWS, with a general direction of accumulating Relationships and the associated CCs together. However, we have not begun to explore it yet.
[29] We anticipate the subsidy distribution, the CC circulation, and contract crowdsourcing will use Zero-Knowledge Proof protocols, which the authorities can authenticate the PTs and CCs while not having to know the identities of the PT owners, their connections with others, and the content of their contracts.
[30] Fureai kippu is a Japanese time-based, complementary currency for people to earn credits helping seniors in their community. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fureai_kippu
[31] Buurtzorg (English: “neighborhood care”) is a Dutch cooperative organizational structure for independent nurse teams in delivering relatively low-cost care for local households. Buurtzorg is Dutch for “neighborhood care”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buurtzorg_Nederland
[32] Broodfonds (English: "Bread fund") is a Dutch communal fund structure that allows independent entrepreneurs to provide each other with temporary sick leave. A 'broodfonds' organizes solidarity by personal connections and networking and its members are self-governing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broodfonds
[33] The welfare state is a type of mixed economy, the welfare state funds the governmental institutions for healthcare and education along with direct benefits paid to individual citizens.
[34] Circles is an electronic cryptocurrency with the aim to create and distribute a globally accessible Universal Basic Income. https://joincircles.net/
[35] Commonfare is a Europe-wide welfare experiment by a collective of activists, researchers, artists, and software developers working in collaboration with the good-practices and commoners, and sponsored by the Horizon 2020 PieNews Project. In particular, ReUnion Network references its goal “to develop a complementary currency system supporting financial network that strives towards autonomy and free implementation of cooperative welfare practices”. https://commonfare.net
[36] The currently active Dutch Basic Income experiments include Utrecht and Nijmegen. They are notably conservative due to many force majeure factors. By engaging with them, we have gained insights about the potential difficulties in doing such experiments and help us to prepare for future negotiations.
[37] The rec (Real Economy Currency) is Barcelona’s digital social currency, a type of social or local currency. It is a citizen exchange system complementary to the euro, allowing transactions in a community between individuals, institutions, and businesses that accept it. Social currencies favor local businesses and the profits revert to the community. https://rec.barcelona/en/
[38] Doughnut economics is an economic model used to measure the performance of an economy by the extent to which the needs of people are met without overshooting Earth's ecological ceiling. https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/
[39] There is a difference between situations of mutual care, wherein people receive and give care, and situations of one-way care, wherein because of illness or other circumstances someone can only receive care. We hope that ReUnion will create a potential negotiation space for care in situations that currently seem to be one-way care. More easily, we also aim to be a space for other forms of care, such as taking care of someone’s pet, to create a care relationship that is more than a reciprocal exchange.
[40] Tarieventabel 2019 PGB-Wlz | Zorgverzekeraars Nederland (https://files.pgb.nl/app/uploads/2018/10/14141747/Tarieventabel-pgb-Wlz-2019-definitief.pdf)
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