CONNECTION FABRIC
Abstract * A conceptual tool for reading commons, care networks and mutual infrastructures as woven relations that must be maintained against enclosure, individualism and capitalist extraction. Keywords * Socioplastics AntoLloveras LAPIEZA-LAB Connection Fabric ConnectionFabric Commoning Postcapitalism commons mutualaid - Essay * ConnectionFabric refers to the common weave of relational goods—the infrastructures of interdependence that capitalism and individualism constantly threaten to unravel. The “fabric” metaphor is now sharpened: fabric is woven, sewn, mended, unraveled; it is not a given but constant labor. J.K. Gibson-Graham’s postcapitalist politics shows that diverse economies—cooperatives, mutual aid, gift economies, care networks—already exist as the fabric beneath the dominant textile; the task is to make them visible and strengthen their weave. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri’s commonwealth theorizes the common as a mode of production and sociality based on shared access and collective decision-making, irreducible to both state and market. Massimo De Angelis’s omnia sunt communia traces the history of commoning from medieval villages to contemporary urban gardens, insisting that commoning is a verb, not a noun. Silvia Federici (strongest single voice here) argues in re-enchanting the world that the commons are not just resources but social relations—and that feminism is essential to their maintenance because care work, reproduction, and the body are the hidden infrastructure of all commoning. David Bollier and Silke Helfrich’s free, fair, and alive offer practical principles: commoning requires boundary-setting (who is included), rule-making (how decisions are made), and conflict-resolution (how disputes are handled). Ontologically, ConnectionFabric posits that no one is self-sufficient; we are always already in relation, and the question is whether those relations are extractive or generative. Methodologically, it requires commons mapping and qualitative social network analysis—identifying mutual aid flows, mapping resource sharing, interviewing cooperative members. Empirical fields include community land trusts, tool libraries, open-source software communities, and mutual aid networks. The proposal is to weave deliberately: to strengthen the fabric by repairing tears, extending threads, and protecting the commons from enclosure. ConnectionFabric thus offers a postcapitalist politics that is not a future state but a present practice of commoning.
Bibliography *
Bollier, D. and Helfrich, S. (2019) Free, Fair, and Alive. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers.
De Angelis, M. (2017) Omnia Sunt Communia. London: Zed Books.
Escobar, A. (2018) Designs for the Pluriverse. Durham: Duke University Press.
Federici, S. (2018) Re-enchanting the World. Oakland: PM Press.
Gibson-Graham, J.K. (2006) A Postcapitalist Politics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Hardt, M. and Negri, A. (2009) Commonwealth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Linebaugh, P. (2008) The Magna Carta Manifesto. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Lloveras, A. (2026) ‘Two Ways a Field Begins to Appear’, Socioplastics-3202. LAPIEZA-LAB, Madrid.
Manzini, E. (2015) Design, When Everybody Designs. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Ostrom, E. (1990) Governing the Commons. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Extended Reading · Related Socioplastics Cores * Socioplastics-3202 — Two Ways a Field Begins to Appear — https://socioplastics.blogspot.com/2026/05/socioplastics-3202-two-ways-field.html · Socioplastics-2506 — Mesh Engine — https://socioplastics.blogspot.com/2026/05/socioplastics-2506-mesh-engine.html · Socioplastics-1504 — Systems Theory as Autopoietic Organization — https://socioplastics.blogspot.com/2026/05/socioplastics-1504-systems-theory.html · Socioplastics-2997 — LateralGovernance — https://socioplastics.blogspot.com/2026/05/socioplastics-2997-lateralgovernance.html · Master Index — Socioplastics Project Index — https://antolloveras.blogspot.com/p/socioplastics-project-index.html
