F03: From Digital Empathy to Localised Solidarity

Bottom Line

Empathy has a radius. Digital platforms promised to extend it globally. Instead, they contracted it to the people who look like you, live near you, or appear in your feed. The global village became gated communities. This care collapse has generated new organising logics: proximity-bounded frameworks like neighbourhood mutual aid, identity-based crowdfunding, participatory investing and hyperlocal governance now channel collective action more reliably than global platforms, but only within their defined boundaries. Local bonds strengthen during immediate crises while distant solidarity becomes an unsustainable luxury, undermining operations dependent on cross-community coalition building, international consensus, or mobilising resources for abstract future benefits. "Think globally, act locally" has been replaced with "Think locally, act privately." 

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