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This article addresses the new forms of social solidarity that are emerging in response to growing socio-spatial inequalities and the deterioration of France’s system of national solidarity. We analyse the conditions rendering this system increasingly ineffective in the face of the ever-multiplying situations of inequality that are at once multi-scale, multi-factorial and cumulative. Drawing on a theoretical approach in terms of proximity, we examine situations widely discussed in the literature in order to bring out the circumstances now favouring the appearance of ‘social commons’. We show how these commons differ from older forms of community solidarity and conclude by suggesting the conditions likely to permit these commons to provide just, lasting responses to the present aggravation of social inequalities.