Embodied Activism

Dear Colleagues,

Just wanted to write-up a note around findings in a space separate from my doctoral thesis, and share this via the blog.

An argument/finding/theory arising from my thesis is embodied activism (EA). The phrase can be found in several contexts, but when applied to trade unionism, and in the context of learning and knowledge production, I am saying this:

A grounded theory of EA is, I argue, an attention to the ways in which the knowledge and capacity of trade unionists are hollowed-out through their experiences under and within organised labour, and of the power of a critical pedagogy to renew embodied identity, consciousness and knowledge. My reasoning here rests in part on a notion of the hidden injuries of trade union renewal, but primarily in the way that narrative underscores the liberatory means of realising embodied identity, consciousness and knowledge though radical pedagogy.  

At its simplest - and is revealed in the last post in this blog - I am drawing heavily on established knowledge within activist educational realms to argue that, initially, trade union activists accrue their identity and consciousness through embodied processes of learning and knowledge production e.g. learning how best to represent members through casework. Their is cognitive learning here for sure for example of workplace policy and relevant statute. But the workplace steward embodies the union and comes to represent workers' interests physically. Like activists in other movements, the trade unionist learns through doing, and their physical self also suffers the detriment of activism in the form of state surveillance and/or blacklisting. Union work itself though is, I argue, harmful and injurious, and not just as a result of conflict with employer, but also through the conflict innate within movements. This, I argue, has the power to override initial comprehension of trade union identity, and corrode confidence also.

A critical pedagogy - like that of the MA ILTUS at Ruskin College - holds a potential to realise sedimented, embodied identity, consciousness and knowledge - and provide a pathway to sustain this through the maintenance of praxis via in/non/formal learning and knowledge production processes subsequently.

This is pretty powerful stuff, I think, and I look forward to writing more about findings as I complete the last stage of the thesis.

I've written in this blog previously about EA, but the thesis findings are much clearer/established now.

In Solidarity

Ian