Friends in Common

Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities

Laura C. Forster, Joel White

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English

Pluto Press
22 September 2025

Sociology: family & relationships; Political activism

Series: FireWorks

Friendship is full of revolutionary potential in the face of a profoundly anti-social capitalist system. Friends in Common explores friendship as a radical practice, capable of upending hierarchies and producing social change.

Friendship can transcend social boundaries and political borders. It is vital in building communities and underpinning solidarity. But its transformative potency ensures that it is heavily policed and restrained by the state. Understanding the radical possibilities of friendship can help us rethink our approach to family, work and politics, and show us new routes to resistance and ways to open up spaces of solidarity and escape.

The dissonance created by comparing societal expectations around friendship and a lonely reality, especially in the wake of an isolating global pandemic, is deeply alienating. Friends in Common shows that friendship as a political practice is foundational to strengthening revolutionary ideas and projects, and is the antidote to capitalist despair.

By: Laura C. Forster, Joel White
Imprint: Pluto Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 198mm, Width: 129mm, Spine: 20mm
ISBN: 9780745350585
ISBN 10: 0745350585
Series: FireWorks
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 22 September 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction 1. Family and Friends 2. Work Friends 3. Friends of Friends 4. Old Friends 5. Bad Friends 6. Friends in Common

Laura C. Forster is Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York. Her research is concerned with intimacy, radical ideas, and political activism in the long nineteenth century. Laura has written for Tribune, ROAR, DOPE and Novara Media. She lives in Newcastle and is part of Food & Solidarity. Joel White is a writer and researcher based in Glasgow. He is involved with groups in the city that organise around mutual aid, migrant solidarity, prison abolition and anti-racism. His writing has appeared in Guardian, Wire, Tribune and the LRB blog. He co-runs the record label GLARC.

Reviews for Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everyday Solidarities

'I've been waiting for this book for years – a beautifully written, compelling study of the significance of the dense bonds of friendship in fostering and preserving progressive politics. Never more needed than now, Friends in Common is essential reading for everyone who wants to keep hope alive, a joyful, empowering read' -- Lynne Segal, author of <i>Lean on Me: A Politics of Radical Care</i>