This book offers a historical and critical analysis of mutualism in Chile between 1920 and 2020, challenging the conventional view that regards it as a residual phenomenon following the consolidation of the welfare state.
Drawing on an approach that integrates social, cultural, and economic history, the book demonstrates that mutual aid societies not only persisted but also underwent cycles of crisis, recomposition, and transformation throughout the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. It examines the relationship between mutualism and the state, its role in the provision of health, welfare, and sociability, as well as the construction of collective assets and networks of solidarity. It also incorporates underexplored dimensions, such as female mutualism and the projection of mutualism beyond its classical institutional forms. Extending into the neoliberal period, the analysis shows how these organizations faced processes of displacement, adaptation, and reconfiguration, without disappearing as a social practice.
Aimed at scholars, advanced students, and specialists in history and the social sciences, this volume proposes a rethinking of mutualism as a historical form of social security and as a potential alternative, or complement, to contemporary market-based welfare systems.