1.3.8 Reciprocity in the economy

In Islam, the practices of zakat (obligatory giving) and sadaqah (voluntary charity) reflect a duty to support the vulnerable. These are acts of care and responsibility. Giving wealth is part of building a just and compassionate society.

In China, the idea of guanxi refers to a network of relationships built through trust and mutual support. Within families and communities, it can encourage strong bonds of care. But it also exposes a tension with reciprocity. When used to build exclusive networks of favour, it can shift from care toward control. This shows how mutual responsibility can lead to inclusion or exclusion, depending on how power is used (Section 1.3.9).

In capitalist societies, relationships are often shaped by the logic of monetary transactions. If someone gives, something of equal value must be returned and quickly. Whether it’s a gift, time, or labour, we are taught to repay in full. This creates pressure to keep relationships even, as if we are settling accounts. Exchange becomes a kind of calculated deal. 

In many cases, people are not even expected to trade fairly, but to come out ahead, to gain more than they give. This focus on taking surplus value in market-based economies makes it difficult for a generous culture of reciprocity to grow. When trust is replaced by competition and exploitation, care becomes harder to sustain. 

Reciprocity in indigenous and spiritual traditions, but also more widely in most households and commons around the world, is grounded in care, gratitude, and responsibility. A gift might be returned much later, or in a completely different form. A person may receive support during a hard time and offer help to someone else years later. In this way, reciprocity does not move in a straight line. Reciprocity enables care to flow through a web of relationships, shaped by trust and shared responsibility rather than by price or profit. Reciprocity is not about giving back in the same way. It is about staying in relationship, and responding with care across time, space, and community.

While capitalism encourages short-term return and profit, reciprocity recognises that what we receive changes how we live. It asks: What will I do now that I have been supported? This could mean protecting land, sharing skills, caring for others, or honouring a gift by telling its story. The return isn’t measured, it’s lived.

Some communities try to protect fairness through strong reciprocity, the idea that people should give back what they’ve received, and that those who refuse should face consequences. Strong reciprocity helps prevent selfish behaviour and keeps systems fair. But if strong reciprocity becomes too strict, it can lead to exclusion, fear, or pressure to repay even when someone cannot. When rules replace relationships, care is lost.

Healthy economies incorporate reciprocity with roots in care.  That means:

• giving without demanding return

• recognising differences in power, and not using care as a way to control

• building open, inclusive systems rather than closed circles of favours

• remembering that receiving care is also part of giving it.

Different provisioning institutions support reciprocity in different ways. Households and commons are often rich in care-based reciprocity, where giving and receiving strengthen social ties over time. In contrast, markets tend to focus on short-term transactions, and states often rely on formal rules and systems. Healthy economies include all four institutions, but building a culture of reciprocity means protecting the spaces, especially households and commons, where care and trust are already strong.

Reciprocity becomes regenerative when it is woven through relationships, not reduced to transactions. It requires humility, trust, and an understanding that care flows in many directions. In this way, reciprocity supports economies that prioritise connection and responsibility over competition and extraction. It reminds us that giving is not about settling accounts, but about sustaining life together.

Concept: Systems, Regeneration

Skills: Reflection, Thinking skills (critical thinking, creative thinking)

Time: varies depending on option

Type: Individual, pairs, and group

Option 1: Mapping webs of reciprocity and care

Time: 30 minutes

On a blank sheet of paper, draw a small circle in the centre and write your name in it.

Around your name, draw lines connecting to people who have supported you (friends, family, teachers, etc.), writing the form of support next to each line (e.g. “helped me study”).

Draw lines showing how you’ve helped others, including support you’ve offered not directly to the same person.

In small groups, compare maps. Discuss: 

• How are these webs different from a series of straight trades?

• At this point in your life, do you feel like you are giving more or receiving more from your relationships? Why?

• What might you do to increase the amount of giving in your relationships, and how might that strengthen them?

Option 2: Reciprocity or a transaction?

Time: 30 minutes

Below are six scenarios. For each one, ask:

Is this closer to reciprocity or a transactional exchange? Why?

Work with a partner to decide your answers. Be ready to explain your thinking.

After discussing all six, discuss with your class or in a small group what factors make something feel more like an exchange or more like a reciprocal, caring relationship.

• Scenario 1: Anna lends her friend a bike and says, ‘Just return it by tomorrow – I need it then.’

• Scenario 2: Leila brings soup to a classmate who is sick. Months later, the classmate helps Leila with her homework without being asked.

• Scenario 3: Ben gives his cousin a lift to work every morning and expects money for fuel each week.

• Scenario 4: Rosa’s neighbour shares vegetables from their garden. Rosa doesn’t give anything back directly, but she often helps an elderly neighbour nearby.

• Scenario 5: Amir helps a new student settle into school. Later, that student feels pressured to invite Amir to every social event.

• Scenario 6: At a birthday party, each guest brings a gift worth exactly £10 because “that’s what everyone expects.”

Option 3: Reciprocity as care vs. Reciprocity as control

Time: 40 minutes

In small groups, create a short role play (1–2 minutes) showing a situation where reciprocity turns into an obligation or tool of control (e.g. a favour expected in return, gift with strings attached).

Volunteers can present their role play to the class.

After each role play, discuss: 

• What was it about this relationship that made it more about control than care?

• What could have been changed to make the relationship more about care again?

Option 4: Reflection

Time: 15 minutes

Hoarding is when someone collects and accumulates an excessive amount of something (money, food, etc.) for their own personal use. Most financial strategies promoted in high-income countries focus on individual wealth hoarding. Having some buffers, stocks of things people need is one strategy, among others, to build resilience.

But Robin Wall Kimmerer remarks in her book The Serviceberry that:

‘Hoarding won’t save us. All flourishing is mutual.’ 

What does she mean, and what does this point tell you about other strategies to build individual and community resilience?

Ideas for longer activities and projects are listed in Subtopic 1.5

• Practices in Islam: Zakah - BBC Bitesize page on zakah. Difficulty level: easy

• Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults - an adapted version of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass, the book explores the deep connection between people and nature through Indigenous wisdom, science, and storytelling. It teaches how reciprocity, gratitude, and care for the Earth can inspire a more sustainable and meaningful way of living - Audio preview of the book. Difficulty level: easy

• The Serviceberry - a short book (about 2 hours to read) with an extended analogy between the Serviceberry plant and human economies, focusing on gratitude, reciprocity and sufficiency. The link here is to a shorter article on the same topic in Emergence magazine. Difficulty level: medium

• Ubuntu: The Essence of Being Human - a short video of Archbishop Desmond Tutu explaining Ubuntu. Difficulty level: easy

BBC Bitesize. (n.d.). Practices in Islam: Zakah. BBC. https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zhbpfcw/revision/4

Bollier, D. and Helfrich, S. (2019). “2. The OntoShift to the Commons”. Free, Fair and Alive: The Insurgent Power of the Commons. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. https://freefairandalive.org/read-it/

Fehr, E., & Gintis, H. (2007). Human motivation and social cooperation: Experimental and analytical foundations. Annual Review of Sociology, 33, 43–64. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.soc.33.040406.131812

Kimmerer, R. W. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions.

Kimmerer, R. W. (2020). The Serviceberry: An Economy of Abundance. Emergence Magazine. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-serviceberry/

Mangena, F. (2022). Hunhu/Ubuntu in the traditional thought of Southern Africa. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/hunhu-ubuntu-southern-african-thought/

Mauss, M. (2002). The gift: The form and reason for exchange in archaic societies (W. D. Halls, Trans.). Routledge. (Original work published 1925)

Meherally, S. (2025, January 15). Reciprocity as relational responsibility. Medium. https://medium.com/design-bootcamp/reciprocity-as-relational-responsibility-b4f365bfb74b

Raworth, K. (2017). Doughnut economics: seven ways to think like a 21st century economist. London: Penguin Random House. (Chapter 3: Nurture Human Nature)