Interpretivist Black Feminism: Understanding the Social Significance of Respect

• In Event: Multi-Epistemological Research: An Integrative Approach

Abstract

Why do everyday law-abiding residents sometimes mobilize in support of criminal organizations (COs)? And, why are so many of them women? To answer these questions, I employ what I refer to as an Interpretivist Black Feminist Approach to examine the micro-dynamics of criminal governance practices and interactions between COs and residents in inner-city communities in Kingston, Jamaica.

This paper discusses a methodological orientation that attends to the history of enslavement and colonization to understand the social meaning of respect for residents, and how it in turn shapes their relationship with COs in their communities. By centering the raced, gendered, and classed ‘political subject’ as a point of departure, an Interpretivist Black Feminist approach is central in understanding how everyday people, living in an environment controlled by COs, express their embodied political subjectivity, power, and agency through their support of COs.

Author

• Lahoma Thomas, University of Toronto