“I’m Reflecting a Lot on the Past”: Political Organizers’ Sensemaking About Relationships and Emotion

• In Event: Justice Outside the Classroom: Civic Participation, Protests, and Teaching

Abstract

This paper analyzes how four social movement organizers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania made meaning about relationships and emotion in their work across a series of meetings. Examining a discussion of what it would mean to design a “political home” for Philadelphians, we ask: How do Philadelphia social movement organizers collaboratively make sense of the role of relationships in their reimagining of the movement ecosystem? Using interaction data from the first meeting, we identify a theme of interrupted connections between people, caused by local conflicts and a larger context of lost wisdom and leadership from past movement leaders who had been killed. The full paper will show how participants built on this early sensemaking to imagine new forms of social connection.

Authors

• Tanner Vea, University of Washington

• Jusil Lee, Pennsylvania State University

• Christina D. Reeves, Pennsylvania State University