Fighting racism, battling burnout: causes of activist burnout in US racial justice activists

Gorski, Paul C.

doi:10.1080/01419870.2018.1439981

Cited by 92 publications

(116 citation statements)

References 35 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Principal among those concerns is the fact that the number of equity efforts occurring concurrently at AIC, have resulted in psychological drain and emotional fatigue among many of the staff involved with DAMLI. Race-related fatigue stemming from the workplace is well documented among people of colour (Franklin, Boyd-Franklin, & Kelly, 2008), as is activist fatigue, when the work of serving as an activist working to create meaningful change both within oneself and within society is also psychologically draining (Gorski, 2018). Both types of fatigue have been noted in both the google doc and in mentor interviews.…”

Section: Internshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating equity: assessing diversity efforts through a social justice lens

Heidelberg

2019

Cultural Trends

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper provides a formative evaluation of The Art Institute of Chicago's initial efforts to diversify the museum field through the Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative (DAMLI) programme. DAMLI is supported by the Walton Family Foundation and Ford Foundation as part of a movement to diversify the arts & cultural workforce in the United States. In Spring, 2018 the author was contracted to evaluate the museum-wide initiative to systematize and improve the experiences of high school, college, and graduate interns from demographic groups currently underrepresented in museum leadership fields. Through the use of [Fraser, N. (1995). Reframing justice in a globalizing world. New Left Review, 36, 1-19.] social justice framework, this paper will focus on the recruitment, selection, and management of internship experiences of the first four cohorts of undergraduate and graduate-level interns within the programme. The paper begins with an overview of recent diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the arts & cultural sectorhighlighting the systemic issues leading to the need for such initiatives and presenting a typology for organisational responses to the issue. This paper then categorise the type of organisational change sought by The Art Institute of Chicago based on Fraser's two-dimensional social justice conditions and remedies framework in order to assess whether or not the Art Institute is achieving its goal of attracting, retaining, and empowering a diverse set of students and influencing their decision to pursue a career in the museum field by providing an equitable and inclusive environment during the internship. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of the broader implications of this work for arts and cultural organisations interested in diversifying the cultural workforce.

show abstract

Section: Internshipsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating equity: assessing diversity efforts through a social justice lens

Heidelberg

2019

Cultural Trends

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Florence Passy and Marco Giugni (2000) argue that most studies on differential participation simply assume that the dynamics accounting for recruitment are the same as those that account for persistence in participation. While there has been a steadily growing literature on participation past the point of recruitment (e.g., Barkan et al 1995; Gorski 2019; Gundelach and Toubøl 2019; Nepstad 2004b; Passy and Giugni 2001b), few study “how movement participation ebbs and flows over time” (McAdam 1989:744). Ebb and flow denote the process of moving in and out of an active state along an ongoing trajectory.…”

Section: The Ebb and Flow Of Solidarity Activismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Solidary Relationship’s Consequences for the Ebb and Flow of Activism: Collaborative Evidence from Life‐History Interviews and Social Media Event Analysis,

Carlsen

Ralund

Toubøl³

2020

Sociological Forum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acting in solidarity with deprived others has become a central topic in social movement research. The explanations of solidarity activism or political altruism are few. However, social movement researchers have claimed that solidarity with out‐of‐group others is a by‐product of in‐group interaction. In contrast, we argue that out‐group interaction with the deprived other and the formation of a solidary relationship is central to the ebb and flow of solidarity activism. We investigate the Danish refugee solidarity movement and show that the meeting with the deprived other 1) brings about an interaction order which makes an ethical demand on the activists to care for the other both within the bounds of the situations and in the future; 2) enacts and amplifies activists’ values and beliefs because the deprived other becomes an exemplar of the injustice and the need to help the broader group of people in the same fragile situation. We develop and test this theory drawing on 42 life‐history interviews and a social media dataset containing a panel of 87,455 activists participating in refugee solidarity groups.

show abstract

“…There are other reasons activists drop out of movements, however, more closely linked to the concept of “burnout.” Paul Gorski () describes three general categories of activist burnout: internal, external, and in‐movement. Internal causes of burnout are connected with the individual personalities of activists.…”

Section: Why Long‐term Activists Drop Out and Burn Outmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In‐movement conflict is also common, sometimes leading to the marginalization and isolation of certain activists within groups (Cox ; Gorski et al ). In a recent study on burnout among racial justice activists, Gorski () found that “structural” factors also contributed to burnout, with activists feeling that white supremacy would never end. More and more, burnout is identified as a significant problem in political activism and movements, so much so that handbooks and guides have been written about mitigating it (Friedmann and McNair ; Jones ).…”

Section: Why Long‐term Activists Drop Out and Burn Outmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Ignoring the News and Going Hiking Can Help You Save the World: Environmental Activist Strategies for Persistence

Driscoll

2019

Sociological Forum

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Social movement research has long examined why activists persist. Little attention has been paid, however, to how persistent environmental activists use personalized strategies to cope with challenges. This article draws on data from 30 in‐depth interviews with long‐term environmental activists to shed light on this understudied phenomenon. The interviewees point to a number of strategies they use to mitigate the challenges they experience in their activism:(1) they have a self‐care practice, primarily in the form of spending time in nature; (2) they adopt various personalized orientations, such as bracketing or ignoring structural environmental challenges, focusing on what they can control, deciding that they have no choice but to persist, focusing on long‐term outcomes, and being realistic about the possibilities of change; and (3) they integrate work, activism, and life balance by shaping their careers and sense of life purpose around the environment. The article concludes with a discussion of whether these strategies are generalizable beyond the environmental movement.

show abstract

Fighting racism, battling burnout: causes of activist burnout in US racial justice activists

Cited by 92 publications

References 35 publications

Evaluating equity: assessing diversity efforts through a social justice lens

Evaluating equity: assessing diversity efforts through a social justice lens

The Solidary Relationship’s Consequences for the Ebb and Flow of Activism: Collaborative Evidence from Life‐History Interviews and Social Media Event Analysis,

When Ignoring the News and Going Hiking Can Help You Save the World: Environmental Activist Strategies for Persistence

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About