Mutualism, also known as the movement of mutuals and the mutualist movement, is a

social movement A social movement is a loosely organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of group action and ma ...

that aims at creating and promoting

mutual organization A mutual organization, or mutual society is an organization (which is often, but not always, a company or business) based on the principle of mutuality and governed by private law. Unlike a true cooperative, members usually do not contribute ...

mutual insurance A mutual insurance company is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders. Any profits earned by a mutual insurance company are either retained within the company or rebated to policyholders in the form of dividend distributions or re ...

s and

mutual fund A mutual fund is a professionally managed investment fund that pools money from many investors to purchase securities. The term is typically used in the United States, Canada, and India, while similar structures across the globe include the SICA ...

s. According to the prominent mutualist Gene Costa, the movement encourages and assists the provision of mutual benefits against risks to those accessing its funds and or the elevation of their material and spiritual living standards by regular payment or contribution. Institutionalized through mutual funds, mutualism has been universally recognized as a generator or embryo of classical forecast and modern

social security Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...

systems and currently coexists with them. Although the fall in the popularity of mutual funds in many social environments coincided with the start of public social security system in the early decades of the 20th century, in Europe and other parts of the world mutualism continues to be an important player in the social economy. Mutuals providing healthcare coverage are united in an international association of benefit societies. Originating from an adaptation of guild system at the 18th century (see

guild A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometim ...

and

mount of piety A mount of piety is an institutional pawnbroker run as a charity in Europe from Renaissance times until today. Similar institutions were established in the colonies of Catholic countries; the Mexican Nacional Monte de Piedad is still in operatio ...

) and widespread at the 19th century, today there are many mutualist associations worldwide integrated into modern society. Nowadays, mutualism is linked to financial firms, insurers, unions, entities to promote solidarity economics,

trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry body, is an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry. An industry trade association partic ...

s and

religious movement Various sociological classifications of religious movements have been proposed by scholars. In the sociology of religion, the most widely used classification is the church-sect typology. The typology is differently construed by different sociolo ...

s. The characteristic sign of mutual movement is its institutional neutrality about political, religious, racial and union affiliations of its members. Mutuals movement and

cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...

s movement have many points in common, around the idea of professional mutual aid. Building on the mutualist movement of the 18th century, Sara Horowitz, founder and executive director of Freelancers Union, has identified a series of related phenomena that she calls "new mutualism"."New Mutualism: Mutual Support for the Information Age"
For example, Horowitz and Costa both point to the 40 million Americans currently freelancing as a means of promoting entrepreneurship to more of the middle class.

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Further reading