Envisioning Rooted Futures: Community Building and Feminist Antiracist Organizing in Austin, TX and London, UK

• In Event: 277 - Section on Collective Behavior and Social Movements Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 04. Framing 2

Abstract

This is a paper based on qualitative research conducted on feminist, antiracist social justice organizing in Austin, TX and London, UK. In this paper, I look at the ways in which social actors invested in feminist and antiracist social justice practices conduct community work and use community as a collective action frame. I observed many similarities in how community work is conducted in practice in the two locations, but a significant difference in how community is utilized as a tool for articulating a specific vision for feminist antiracist futures. For this reason I offer examples of community from both research sites, and examine the construction of community as it relates to feminist antiracist social justice work. I first outline the importance of claiming belonging for antiracist, feminist, and anti-homophobic efforts. I then discuss the importance of generating lasting connections amongst individuals for doing anti-oppression work that looks at intersecting systems of oppression. I then turn the discussion to problems of building solidarity efforts, drawing from the example of Black British identity that was crucial to the antiracist movement in London during the 1970s and 1980s. I return to Austin in the concluding section to look at multiracial solidarity efforts being conceived and constructed here in Austin. I provide examples of multiracial community building efforts and suggest that community is employed as a social action frame to ensure sustainability of solidarity efforts.

Author

• Michelle Lea Mott, University of Texas-Austin