Reimagining Academic Activism: Learning from Feminist Anti-Violence Activists (Organizations and Activism)

Drawing from an ethnography with a feminist anti-violence collective, this book explores how we can reimagine the relationship between academia and activism to create novel opportunities for social change. The book tells two interconnected stories: the story of a collective fighting gendered violence in an ever-shifting non-profit sector context and the story of an ethnographer learning from the collective about identity and social change. Rather than offering a prescriptive account of how academics can collaborate with activists, these intertwined stories ask us to question how we draw lines between what counts as academic/activist, theory/practice, reason/emotion, and mind/body. Unfixing these lines helps us to develop our imaginative capacity for identifying and dismantling injustice and share tools to (re)build a more just world. This book is an account of the social justice tools of feminist anti-violence activists including strong emotions and alternative organising, the unsettling the gendered body, and storytelling about feminist identity. This book is also an account of how those tools were taken up to reimagine academic activism. Beyond asking us how we might ‘do good’, however, this book asks us what we might become. Front Cover Series page Reimagining Academic Activism: Learning from Feminist Anti-Violence Activists Copyright information Table of contents Series Editors’ Preface Preface Part I The Academic/Activist 1 Setting Out Setting out Settling in 2 Unsettling the In/Out (Re)settling in and out Into the field(s) Into the feminist anti-violence movement Seeking new directions Part II Ties That Bind; Ties That Break 3 Outside of Ourselves A familiar tale of the community sector History and contribution: community spirit Colliding with the market: the impacts of neoliberalism Dissolving community spirit and voice? The familiar tale: the only frame? Alternative understandings; alternative organizations On emotion and organizing Alternative organizing, emotion, and the community sector 4 Passionate, Sad, Angry People Ties that bind: emotional attachments Ties that break: being beside oneself Redrawing the boundaries: emotion, activism, and academia Part III Vulnerable Bodies 5 Gendered Bodies The body, identity, and violence In the lunchroom: the body and gender identity 6 LGBT+ Bodies 7 Radically Unsettled Bodies Vulnerability, academia, and anti-violence activism Part IV A Story Like Mine 8 An Account of Ourselves Activist identities in organizations A micro-political approach to activist identity in the community context Giving an account of feminist activist identities Jen Tia Kimberley Ava Evelyn Emily 9 Through Difference At the intersection of self and organized activism: competing claims for legitimacy Feminist activism within the collective Weaving together the personal and political: giving an account of the feminist activist The micro-politics of academia, activism, and storytelling Conclusion: Our Words Must Spill Notes References Index Back Cover How can we reimagine the relationship between academia and activism to provide new opportunities for social change? Based on an ethnography with an anti-violence feminist collective, this vibrant and vital book develops an interdisciplinary approach to activism and activist research, helping us reimagine the role of scholarship in the fight against social inequality. With its reflections on novel tools that can be utilized in the fight for social justice, this book will be a valuable resource for academics in critical management studies, sociology, gender studies, and social work as well as practitioners and policymakers across the social services sector. Based on deep ethnographic research, this book explores new practices and ideas about activism in the fight against social inequality. The book is both about feminist activists and is an act of feminist activism, with the author's experiences as a volunteer ethnographer in New Zealand sitting at its heart. Ruth Weatherall. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Electronic Reproduction. New York Available Via World Wide Web.