Feminist solidarity building as embodied agonism: An ethnographic account of a protest movement

Feminist solidarity, after early and idealistic conceptions of an all‐encompassing sisterhood, has become preoccupied with understanding and theorising differences between women. This study develops an account of solidarity as embodied agonism, where difference and contest are experienced and negotiated through the body. Difference and contest are reframed within feminist solidarity projects as resources for, rather than inhibitors to, generating collective agency. This is done through an ethnography of a protest movement in Montenegro, which drew together diverse groups of women, and bring our data into conversation with theories of agonistic democratic practice and embodied performativity. Embodied agonistic solidarity is theorised as a participative and inclusive endeavour driven by conflictual encounters, constituted through the bodies, language and visual imagery of assembling and articulating subjects. Our account of solidarity is presented as constituted through three dimensions, each of which represents a different emphasis on sensory experience: exposing, which is to make one's body open to the hardship of others, enabling alliances between unlikely allies to emerge; citing, which is to draw on others’ symbolic resources and to publicly affirm them; inhabiting, which is to embody the deprivations of others, enabling alliances to grow and persist

Feminist Solidarities: Theoretical and Practical Complexities

This article considers the resurgence of interest in feminist solidarity in theory and practice in the contemporary moment in the United States and UK. What does feminist solidarity mean, what forms is it taking, and how might it proliferate? We begin by mapping the changing inflections of solidarity in recent feminist cultural theory, highlighting the range of theoretical components, investments and emphases. Next, we consider the various forms of solidarity presented and created by the Women’s March and the Women’s Strike, analysing the differences in terms of the extent of their reach and their political economy. We argue that both phenomena can be understood as reactions to, firstly, several decades of neoliberal impoverishment, which have now exposed neoliberal iterations of feminism as fundamentally inadequate; and secondly, and relatedly, the arrival of misogynistic and reactionary forms of nationalism. Finally, we show that different approaches to feminist solidarity, as well as an expansion of alliances, are necessary in order to extend contemporary feminism as an effective and large‐scale project. We therefore argue that feminist solidarity needs to retain its genealogical roots in left politics whilst being as plural as possible in practice

‘This is the plan’ : mature women’s vocational education choices and decisions about Honours degrees

This paper discusses a piece of qualitative research that explored the narratives of a group of mature women when they discussed influences on their post-16 educational decisions. This encompasses their initial vocational education and training (VET) and their choice to study higher education (HE) programmes in England. The research draws on Nancy Fraser’s dual-perspectival notion of social justice to analyse how gender may have affected their educational choices. The research also explores some of the tension experienced in feminist research practice. Data collection was undertaken primarily via semi-structured individual interviews with six female Foundation degree graduates who decided to study an Honours top-up degree. In addition, a research journal was also used to explore a feminist standpoint approach and the research relationships. A thematic analysis of the data found that gender plays a crucial and complicated role in vocational choices. The findings also highlight that although VET is not a second choice, the low pay and misrecognition of ‘pink collar’ work leads the women into HE study. HE is used to gain credibility and employment security. The research concludes that top-up degrees offer the women individualised solutions to the low status and economic precarity vocational education provides

Negotiating Authority Through Feminism: Girls’ Political Experience in Italian Social Movements

In this chapter we investigate the relationship between girls and feminism as a lens for interpreting gendered relations of power and authority that define political participation within social movements in Italy. Starting from our dual position as researchers and activists, we focus on semi-structured interviews with girls working in occupied and self-managed spaces, to understand which roads they follow to negotiate different forms of authority, and whether feminist reflections find space on those paths. By reconstructing the genealogy of the feminists’ thoughts—capable of challenging the modern conception of power, and therefore also that of authority—we aim at highlighting their echoes within the girls’ discourses and practices. In doing so, this chapter offers an understanding on how the girls’ gaze on the world can build new practices and new perceptions of the exercise of power and authority

What life in favelas can teach us about the COVID‐19 pandemic and beyond: Lessons from Dona Josefa

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