Describes an equal and reciprocal exchange of services or resources. As a political practice, mutual aid is rooted in biology, where theorists observed the co-operation and co-evolution of plant and animal species in spite of their divergent goals. In its subsequent development as a politics of care, mutual aid describes a necessary form of community sustenance rooted in collaborative support networks (see Take Care Circuit 3). Although mutual aid can be a formal process of exchange, it is anchored in volunteer work, gifting, resource-sharing, and other non-transactional relationships.