Self-Defense Collective Organizing – A Pedagogy for Embodied Social Movement Building

• In Event: Justice, Social movements, and Protest in/through Education

Proposal

Background: Although 158 countries have passed laws on domestic violence, recent statistics estimate 736 million women have suffered physical and/or sexual violence at least once (UN Women, 2022). Gender-based violence is a serious human rights violation and a serious social justice issue. Simpson (2017) argues that self-determination and body sovereignty are interrelated constructs and are especially important for women. Body sovereignty, which means agency and control over one’s own body, challenges hetero-patriarchal and hetero-normative systems that seek to maintain power and control, making it particularly significant in issues of gender-based violence. Pedagogies and practices to encourage self-determination, support solidarity-building and body sovereignty are urgently needed to contest the dismal reality of the contemporary issues of gendered and racialized violence and inspire collective action to inspire change across divides and differences.

Feminist self-defense collectives present a solution to gender-based violence with the means to reclaim and decolonize urban infrastructure through material social relations and deterritorialization of bodies and space (Magnusson, 2018). Surprisingly, feminist scholarship has neglected to consider seriously the potential for community self-defense organizing and their value in revisiting, reimagining, and researching frameworks with a focus that is decolonizing, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist (Magnusson, 2018; McCaughey, 1997). Civil self-defense collective organizing differs from the typical self-defense model originating from the 1970s second-wave feminist movement (Magnusson, 2018; Rousse, 2017). Magnusson (2018) has critiqued this model of self-defense training for utilizing colonial frameworks, approaches that teach disjointed moves and sequences, and safety tips that individualize violence instead of acknowledging violence as historically and systemically shaped. Conversely, feminist civil self-defense collectives are grass-roots initiatives that integrate feminist praxis, physical training, emotional support, and discussion. They generate a collective space for resource and knowledge sharing and for women to connect in learning to renegotiate their lives. The research for this paper seeks to make an original contribution to feminist anti-racist pedagogies by shifting conceptualizations of safety and community well-being through collective organizing and action. Self-defense collective organizing, as presented in this paper, takes a more comprehensive and holistic approach that focuses on social relations, supports community building, and connects to anti-violence movements.

Methods: This theoretical paper compares the pedagogies of self-defense collective organizing in three countries in North America — Canada, the United States, and Mexico. The purpose of this research is to understand how embodied learning methods can contribute to solidarity building and self-determination for reclaiming body sovereignty and resisting gender-based violence. What are the strategies and tactics used in collective organizing? And what can we learn from their pedagogical processes about how we generate power through collective action? This research is theoretically grounded in transnational feminist theories (e.g., Alexander, 2005; Mohanty, 2003), which recognize intersectionality, address epistemological hierarchies, have an internationalist commitment and encourage ethical collaboration and alliances through solidarity and movement building across borders (Enns et al., 2021; Tambe & Thayer, 2021); and embodied learning theories (e.g., Simpson, 2017), which recognize the role and importance of the body as a source of knowledge and in learning (Clarke, 2005; Shonstrom, 2020; Stoltz, 2015). The analytical comparison of the three contexts is done using the structure for comparative inquiry by Philips and Schweisfurth (2014).

Implications: Feminist self-defense collectives have the potential to transform social relations and build social movements through solidarity, which is not commonly recognized in mainstream literature and practice (Magnusson, 2018). Building on existing scholarship, this paper connects gender studies literature and self-defense literature which may be mutually beneficial and strengthen understandings of gender negotiation and challenge gendered and racialized oppression from white hetero-normative patriarchal and colonial systems. Embodied practices can help with developing a sense of body sovereignty which is the foundation of feminist self-defense collective organizing pedagogy which is an important implication of this paper that will be discussed and highlighted.

Significance: Pedagogies that can support collective safety and well-being are significant for creating self-determining communities and generating links to envisioning and taking action to create a better world. This research, which focuses on pedagogies for learning to take civil actions collectively, will be highly relevant to scholars working in adult education, community development, feminist activism, and social movement building. This paper is relevant to CIES because it fits Sub-Theme 4: Pedagogies and Protest by discussing how self-defense collective organizing presents a different strategy and tactic of protest. Specifically, the focus on self-defense collective organizing as embodied social movement building is a strategy that encourages embracing different kinds of pedagogies to guide action.

References Used in Proposal
Alexander, M.J. (2005). Pedagogies of the sacred: Making the invisible tangible. Duke University Press.
Enns, C.Z., Díaz, L.C, & Bryant-Davis, T. (2021) Transnational feminist theory and practice: An introduction. Women & Therapy, 44(1-2), 11-26, DOI: 10.1080/02703149.2020.1774997
Magnusson, J. (2018). Fractious bodies and rebel streets. In S. Batacharya & R. Wong (Eds.), Sharing breath: Embodied learning and decolonization (pp. 369 – 388). Athabasca University Press
McCaughey, M. (1997). Real knockouts : the physical feminism of women’s self-defense. New York University Press.
Mohanty, C. T. (2003). Feminism without borders: Decolonizing theory, practicing solidarity. Duke University Press.
Phillips, D., & Schweisfurth, M. (2014). Comparative and international education : an introduction to theory, method, and practice (Second edition.). Bloomsbury.
Rouse, W.L. (2017). Her own hero: The origins of the women's self-defense movement. New York University Press.
Stolz, Steven A. (2015). Embodied learning. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 47 (5):474-487.
Shonstrom, E. (2020). The wisdom of the body: What embodied cognition can teach us about learning, human development, and ourselves. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Simpson, L.B. (2017). As we have always done: Indigenous freedom through radical resistance. University of Minnesota Press.
Tambe, A., & Thayer, M. (2021). Introduction. In A. Tambe & M. Thayer (Eds.), Transnational feminist itineraries: Situating theory and activist practice (pp. 1–10). Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1rnpjvd.4
UN Women. (February 2022). Facts and figures: Ending violence against women. UN Women. https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures

Author

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