Betweener Autoethnographies: A Path Towards Social Justice (Qualitative Inquiry and Social Justice)

How do we persuade people that we all have common experiences and hopes? That we are ever more dependent on each other in times of globalization via technology, commerce, climate change, and overpopulation? How do we move from an "Us and Them" mentality to simply "Us"? In this book, a follow-up to their first book Betweener Talk, the authors share autoethnographies about being and doing scholarship as betweeners searching for inclusivity. The authors have witnessed an escalation of division in their native Brazil and in the USA, as well as in South America more broadly and Europe – places that had been making steady, albeit slow, progress toward greater inclusion. The book explores identity, interactions, existence, and possibilities in the spaces between "Us" and "Them" to help current and future generations imagine a more inclusive way of living – as Us. It is about how two Third World scholars think the Postcolonial/Decolonizing discourse – with a performance studies lens – can further notions of inclusive social justice through scholarship borne out of lived oppression and the struggle for humanization. It is a union of two authors who, in their own words "have been close friends since our youth, both captivated by Paulo Freire’s notion of education and social transformation through a praxis of conscientização (conscientization), but who experienced life growing up at opposite ends of the social class spectrum. Early through love and later through theory, we have come to viscerally inhabit and embrace our betweener identities in scholarship and daily lives, breaking the distance between us and the paradigms that attempt to separate political, personal, and professional life." The authors’ hope is that their own and other betweener autoethnographies can contribute to the larger qualitative inquiry global movement and its central goal: marching together toward ever greater social justice. "How do we persuade people that we all have common experiences and hopes? That we are ever more dependent on each other in times of globalization via technology, commerce, climate change, and overpopulation? How do we move from an "Us and Them" mentality to simply "Us"?In this book, a follow-up to their first book Betweener Talk, the authors share autoethnographies about being and doing scholarship as betweeners searching for inclusivity. The authors have witnessed an escalation of division in their native Brazil and in the USA, as well as in South America more broadly and Europe places that had been making steady, albeit slow, progress toward greater inclusion. The book explores identity, interactions, existence, and possibilities in the spaces between "Us" and "Them" to help current and future generations imagine a more inclusive way of living as Us. It is about how two Third World scholars think the Postcolonial/Decolonizing discourse with a performance studies lens can further notions of inclusive social justice through scholarship borne out of lived oppression and the struggle for humanization. It is a union of two authors who, in their own words "have been close friends since our youth, both captivated by Paulo Freires notion of education and social transformation through a praxis of conscientização (conscientization), but who experienced life growing up at opposite ends of the social class spectrum. Early through love and later through theory, we have come to viscerally inhabit and embrace our betweener identities in scholarship and daily lives, breaking the distance between us and the paradigms that attempt to separate political, personal, and professional life."The authors hope is that their own and other betweener autoethnographies can contribute to the larger qualitative inquiry global movement and its central goal: marching together toward ever greater social justice."--Provided by publisher In this book, a follow-up to their first book Betweener Talk, the authors share autoethnographies about being and doing scholarship as betweeners searching for inclusivity. The authors have witnessed an escalation of division in their native Brazil and in the USA, as well as in South America more broadly and Europe - places that had been making steady, albeit slow, progress toward greater inclusion. The book explores identity, interactions, existence, and possibilities in the spaces between "Us" and "Them" to help current and future generations imagine a more inclusive way of living - as Us. It is about how two Third World scholars think the Postcolonial/Decolonizing discourse - with a performance studies lens - can further notions of inclusive social justice through scholarship borne out of lived oppression and the struggle for humanization. It is a union of two authors who, in their own words "have been close friends since our youth, both captivated by Paulo Freire's notion of education and social transformation through a praxis of conscientizacao (conscientization), but who experienced life growing up at opposite ends of the social class spectrum. Early through love and later through theory, we have come to viscerally inhabit and embrace our betweener identities in scholarship and daily lives, breaking the distance between us and the paradigms that attempt to separate political, personal, and professional life." Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Dedication 6 Table of Contents 8 List of figures 10 Series Editor Foreword 11 Acknowledgments 13 Introduction 16 PART I: Performing Social Justice 22 1. Expanding the Circle of Us 24 Outline of the Rest of the Book 27 2. Locating Betweener Autoethnographies in Qualitative Inquiry 30 Performance Turn 33 Critical Pedagogy 35 Third World Feminism 36 Central Metaphor: Betweener Autoethnographies 37 PART II: Betweener Autoethnographies 40 3. Betweenness in Writing and Performativity: Betweeners Speak Up 42 Beginnings 42 Writing Visceral Knowledge in Decolonizing Times 44 Dismantling the Myth of the Lone Expert 47 Structural Power and Its Epistemological Gatekeepers 50 4. Betweenness in Systemic Exclusion: When Janitors Dare to Become Scholars 54 Missing Bodies 69 Migrant Stories 88 Toward Narratives of Healing and Social Hope 95 Note 97 5. Betweenness in Decolonizing Inquiry 98 Classrooms as Decolonizing Sites 98 Decolonizing Constructions of Childhood and History 105 Constructions of (De)Colonizing Childhoods 108 Violence 114 Tooth 116 Memories 118 Notes 121 PART III: Contemporary Issues on Us versus Them 122 6. Betweener Autoethnographies 124 Betweener Autoethnography as a Decolonizing Act 128 Toward Inclusive Decolonization 131 7. Traveling Identities 134 8. Activism through Decolonizing Inquiry 140 Words to End With 144 References 146 Index 152