“Divide and conquer”. Anti-racist and community organizing under austerity

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of austerity on anti-racist and community organizing. We focus on three key shifts: changes to public funding, the push to entrepreneurialism and the mainstreaming of Equalities legislation. The paper contributes to critical understandings of the changing relationship between civil society and the state and the challenges this creates for working against racism. We highlight how austerity acts as an alibi to further diminish race as a policy concern. Organizations and activists are encouraged to act as entrepreneurs and confront each other as competitors, rather than allies in a political struggle. This leads to a very real sense that solidarities are being deliberately ruptured in order to "divide and conquer" and diminish collective organizing capacity. We illustrate how this is compounded by the cumulative affective consequences of austerity measures, often at considerable costs in terms of a broader collective agenda.

Disturbing hierarchies. Sexual harassment and the politics of intimacy in fieldwork

“…The research on which this discussion is based did not seek to explore sex, sexualisation or sexual harassment. Gender was a matter of concern in the sense that we were interested in how gender intersects with race and other social experiences to shape policy and practice (see, for example, Harries et al, 2020). It is also important to note that the thinking that went into this discussion did not start until after most of the data collection had been completed and interviews were transcribed.…”

Introduction: reflecting upon the development of participatory action research and community development efforts

“…In addition, stronger welfare states provide for more citizen needs (van Kersbergen and Vis, 2013) reducing the need for a strong non-profit sector for things like housing development. But devolution and austerity have in recent decades created a need for more U.S.-style community organizing in places with previously strong welfare states (Harries et al, 2020;Hande and Kelly, 2015;Bailey et al, 2017). In recent years, this has resulted in CD around immigrant, refugee, and Roma communities increasing in prominence (Ryder et al, 2014;Kirwan and Jacob, 2016).…”

CiviAct: Negotiating ‘fields of paradox’ in anti-racist university community partnerships

“…The work of partner organisations directly resist the harms of inequality visited upon minoritised communities. The formal inclusion of university partners within CiviAct exists to serve these ends, and the organisation and financing of CiviAct seeks to nurture the development of anti-racist solidarities, despite the increasingly individualised and politicised funding landscape (Harries et al, 2020). However, CiviAct is also a coalition that paradoxically benefits from the resources of powerful agencies with institutional priorities and expectations (universities and funders).…”