Minority women, austerity and activism

Abstract

Based on our study of minority women's activism in the context of the economic crisis in Scotland, England and France, we question how well third sector organisations, policy-makers and social movements have responded to minority women's perspectives and needs arising from austerity and racism. Apart from being disproportionately affected by the cuts, minority women are also undermined by dominant discourses which can (mis)represent them as either 'victims' or 'enterprising actors'. There appears, from our excerpted interviews, to be a disconnect between minority women's experiences and analyses of their precarity, their desire to take radical action and the compliant and domesticating projects and programmes that are currently being offered by some of their third sector 'allies'.

Racism, Crisis, Brexit

“…Second, by juxtaposing the category white working class to immigrant, such a narrative not only privileged one stratum of Britain's working class over the other on the grounds of citizenship, it also erased those parts of the working class who were black and brown Britons. And through this sleight of hand, the lived experiences of those whose economic austerity was overlain by race and gender discrimination were simply elided (Emejulu and Bassel 2015) and closed off from public scrutiny and debate. Third, and related, this had the effect of further dividing the multiethnic working class on racial lines, and in doing so submerged those other explanations for working class pain -the austerity imposed by Labour and Conservative elites alike.…”

Resistance or resignation to welfare reform? The activist politics for and against social citizenship

“…Previous research has shown how civil society organisations have the capacity to repress, silence or co-opt the political projects of some of the most marginalised citizens (e.g. Emejulu and Bassel, 2015). With this in mind, it is necessary to re-imagine citizenship from the perspective of those most marginalised by it and re-insert their ÔgrassrootsÕ views and practices into welfare debates (Dwyer, 2002).…”

Engaged Academics as Activist Professionals: Privilege and Humility in Addressing Knowledge Divides

“…Advantaged allies tend to dilute the oppositional identities that promote empowerment among the oppressed (Droogendyk et al 2016). Advantaged allies often portray people as victims and use disempowering rhetoric or seek to dissuade people from radical action (Emejulu 2015;Maney and Abraham 2008). Oppressed people are generally more radical in their goals and tactics than allies and are less concerned with their relations to other movements (Marx and Useem 1971).…”