12. Assessing the Transformative Impact of Love-Based Microsocial Communities

This chapter summarises Simona Berretta’s research on micro-social relations, discussing how they can contribute to our understanding of the nexus of common goods. Do transformative micro-social relations also generate a dynamic of the common good, and how? What can we learn about the inner dynamics of the common good at the macro level, by looking at the micro-dynamics of personalised relations of care involving vulnerable people? The author studies a faith-based rehab community in Italy and the GRIPP program for prisoners in the US. She shows that the common good matrix may help us understand the building blocks of sociality, or the creation of a common root which is a shared humanity, that is, a shared practice of our humanity.