Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements
Research rarely unpicks the variety of experiences that exist between activists at different intersections. Our paper attends to this shortfall in literature, firstly through the lens of gendered experiences of labour in housing movements, and secondly through the lens of casualised gendere...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Radical Housing Journal
2023-07-01
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| Series: | Radical Housing Journal |
| Online Access: | https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2023/being-women-scholar-activists/ |
| _version_ | 1797777470662901760 |
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| author | Meg Bishop Abi O’Connor |
| author_facet | Meg Bishop Abi O’Connor |
| author_sort | Meg Bishop |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Research rarely unpicks the variety of experiences that exist between activists at different intersections. Our paper attends to this shortfall in literature, firstly through the lens of gendered experiences of labour in housing movements, and secondly through the lens of casualised gendered labour as scholar-activists in the neoliberal university. How we, and others, negotiate these everyday politics will be analysed to offer a more complete understanding of the nuances and tensions at play even in the most progressive movements in Britain. By combining our own experiences with those gleaned from interviews with fellow activists, we develop a framework for understanding what we term ‘activist housework’ - often carried out by those of us who are not cis men - and how this shapes our capacity as organisers and researchers. This framework identifies mundane, everyday and behind-the-scenes labour of activism, which too often goes unseen in favour of focus on more emergent, organic and direct forms of resistance (Pain, 2019). Doing so, we consider, allows reflection on where and how resistance can and must change to maintain the welcome growth in housing activism in Britain. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:05:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-21821f3d648c4036af1f80934729088a |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2632-2870 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T23:05:25Z |
| publishDate | 2023-07-01 |
| publisher | Radical Housing Journal |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Radical Housing Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-21821f3d648c4036af1f80934729088a2023-07-18T23:45:00ZengRadical Housing JournalRadical Housing Journal2632-28702023-07-0151113210.54825/IOLO6421Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movementsMeg BishopAbi O’Connorhttps://orcid.org/0009-0004-2599-5865 Research rarely unpicks the variety of experiences that exist between activists at different intersections. Our paper attends to this shortfall in literature, firstly through the lens of gendered experiences of labour in housing movements, and secondly through the lens of casualised gendered labour as scholar-activists in the neoliberal university. How we, and others, negotiate these everyday politics will be analysed to offer a more complete understanding of the nuances and tensions at play even in the most progressive movements in Britain. By combining our own experiences with those gleaned from interviews with fellow activists, we develop a framework for understanding what we term ‘activist housework’ - often carried out by those of us who are not cis men - and how this shapes our capacity as organisers and researchers. This framework identifies mundane, everyday and behind-the-scenes labour of activism, which too often goes unseen in favour of focus on more emergent, organic and direct forms of resistance (Pain, 2019). Doing so, we consider, allows reflection on where and how resistance can and must change to maintain the welcome growth in housing activism in Britain.https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2023/being-women-scholar-activists/ |
| spellingShingle | Meg Bishop Abi O’Connor Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements Radical Housing Journal |
| title | Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements |
| title_full | Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements |
| title_fullStr | Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements |
| title_full_unstemmed | Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements |
| title_short | Being women scholar-activists: Tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements |
| title_sort | being women scholar activists tensions between the neoliberal university and grassroots housing movements |
| url | https://radicalhousingjournal.org/2023/being-women-scholar-activists/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT megbishop beingwomenscholaractiviststensionsbetweentheneoliberaluniversityandgrassrootshousingmovements AT abioconnor beingwomenscholaractiviststensionsbetweentheneoliberaluniversityandgrassrootshousingmovements |