Making Inequality Regimes Visible in Solidarity Economy: Feminist Organizational Change Through Participatory Action Research

ABSTRACT Drawing on Acker's concept of inequality regimes, this article examines how feminist organizational change unfolds in solidarity economy organizations explicitly committed to democracy, cooperation, and care. Based on a Feminist Participatory Action Research process with XEAS País Valencià, a Spanish solidarity economy network, the study analyses participatory workshops, interviews, observation, fieldnotes, and organizational documents. The findings show that inequalities were reproduced less through formal hierarchy than through ordinary arrangements of participation, availability, information, informal authority, care work, and organizational responsibility. The process made these arrangements visible and partially contestable by redefining participation, clarifying roles, politicizing care, and opening collective reflection on power. Yet change remained fragile because it depended on limited resources, uneven participation, and the labor of a small group of committed actors. The article contributes to feminist organization theory by showing how emancipatory values can both enable and obscure the transformation of inequality regimes.