Date of Award
2021
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelors
Department
Humanities
First Advisor
Clarkson, Nicholas
Area of Concentration
Gender Studies
Abstract
Much of the visible effort done on the social justice front focuses on policies, consciousness-raising, and organizing protests. This thesis moves away from these strategies and towards practices rooted in Transformative Justice, exploring everyday activism at the individual, interpersonal, and organizational levels. Chapter 1 begins by examining the concept of self-care as a tool for reifying gendered norms around health and beauty, and as an agent of neoliberalism. This chapter then utilizes a transformative lens to redefine selfcare as a way to take part in everyday activism at the individual level. The focal point of Chapter 2 is transformative relationships as an interactional form of everyday activism. I identify emotional literacy, vulnerability, empathy, and the principles of adrienne maree brown’s Liberated Relationships as necessary skills for engagement in this practice. Finally, Chapter 3 explores the organizational level of everyday activism, turning to mutual aid and Healing Justice as alternatives that fill the gaps left by policy work as a strategy for activism and charities as a means of providing aid to communities. I argue that the practices covered throughout this thesis can be done on a daily basis to create small resistances in everyday life that, as an increasing number of people begin to adopt these practices, has potential to create the cultural shifts that can transform the current world into the world we want to live in.
Recommended Citation
Knadle, Emma, "EVERYDAY ACTIVISM FOR EVERYDAY PEOPLE: TRANSFORMATIVE PRACTICES OF SELF-CARE, CULTIVATING RELATIONSHIPS, AND COLLECTIVE CARE" (2021). Theses & ETDs. 6083.
https://digitalcommons.ncf.edu/theses_etds/6083