“This Day, We Use Our Energy for Revolution” is a collaborative ethnography of activist endurance, which I have researched and written alongside the leaders of Women With A Vision (WWAV) in New Orleans, a black feminist health collective founded in 1989. Grounded in three years of fieldwork and a decade of engaged partnership, this dissertation centers the often-hidden histories, practices, and geographies of struggle in America’s zones of abandonment and asks how visions for living otherwise become actionable. Two events frame its inquiry: On March 29, 2012, WWAV overturned a law criminalizing sex work as a “crime against nature,” thereby securing the removal of more than 800 people from the Louisiana sex offender registry list; two months later, on May 24, still unknown arsonists firebombed and destroyed the organization’s headquarters. Using a multidisciplinary approach, this dissertation excavates the histories of violence and struggle that surround these events in order to render visible a complex geographic story of religion, conquest, and refusal. Post-Katrina New Orleans has been imagined as a “resilient” city fulfilling secular visions for progress and development. I argue, by contrast, that this spatial project of renovation rests on centuries-old colonialist logics, wherein blackness figures as the foil upon which “resilience” establishes its own significance. As such, I read the attacks on WWAV not as exceptional, but rather as clues into the enduring spatial threat that black women’s material, spiritual, and intellectual labors pose. For generations, southern black women have been doing history outside of established historiography. Their archives take many forms: texts written, bodies resurrected, communities made whole. So do their narratives. The deft two-step of southern black women’s history-making both refuses and reframes the dominant discourses into which they enter, as well as the places they have been assigned by white supremacy, gender injustice, and state power. I argue that this generations-honed black feminist praxis opens new directions for understanding the work of crafting social life and political vision since emancipation. Complementing historical studies on how black women fashioned authority within mainline and charismatic Christian institutions, this dissertation looks beyond the pews to the blues, to front porches and to Afro-Caribbean traditions––to locate and theorize black women’s ethics, aesthetics, and epistemologies for crafting more livable human geographies.

Despite Asian Americans’ noteworthy participation in activist movements over the decades, there is little known about the psychological experiences of Asian American activists let alone their activist identity development. Given the limited research about the lived experiences of Asian American activists, a qualitative study was conducted to explore the relationship between Asian American activists’ racial/ethnic identity development and activist identity development. Nineteen individuals, ages 23 to 46, with diverse genders and Asian ethnic backgrounds, completed demographic surveys and semi-structured interviews. Data analyses yielded a multi-part theoretical model for Asian Americans’ Negotiating Activist Commitment which illustrates how multiple dimensions of racial and cultural experiences affect how Asian American activists engage in their activist work, and vice versa. Results showed that individuals’ varied experiences with traditional Asian cultural values and the model minority myth influence the evolution of their racial, cultural, and activist identity development, ultimately shaping their level of commitment to an activist identity and activist-related activities. Study findings not only help to validate pre-existing literature about the racial and cultural experiences of Asian Americans but also offer more nuanced understanding of Asian American identity development as it intersects with activist identity.

This dissertation recounts how community groups in postwar New York City tapped into growing government engagement with urban problems, which culminated in President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1964 declaration of "unconditional war on poverty." Focusing on the discourse among grassroots activists, social reformers, and city officials, I argue that the War on Poverty has been misunderstood by scholars inattentive to the rich exchange of ideas that occurred at street level. I show how local policy innovations flowed upward and influenced elites -- intellectuals, politicians, bureaucrats -- before being projected back downward and adapted anew. Viewing the War on Poverty from the ground up not only provides a fresh perspective on its well-documented failures; it also turns up hidden successes. My narrative unfolds in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant, where the drive to end poverty dovetailed with a vibrant civil-rights movement. A majority-black area of roughly 400,000 people, Bed-Stuy housed a mix of desperately poor tenants and upwardly mobile homeowners. I emphasize the policy role played by members of the area's middle class, especially women, who acted as brokers between politicians and the poor people whose empowerment the War on Poverty ostensibly promoted. In the 1950s, activists in Bed-Stuy partnered with the municipal government of Robert F. Wagner, Jr., to tackle pressing issues -- juvenile delinquency, deteriorated housing, capital flight -- through experimental social-work techniques and a new model of neighborhood-based planning. Such partnerships laid the groundwork for the federal Community Action Program, the centerpiece of the War on Poverty. Though Bed-Stuy's official Community Action Agency ultimately succumbed to mismanagement, bureaucratization, and internal strife, it did spawn several social-uplift and educational programs that helped to empower local residents, especially black women. By the late 1960s, Bed-Stuy's poverty warriors were searching for new ways of institutionalizing the federal antipoverty commitment and gaining a measure of community control. They found one answer in an alliance with Senator Robert F. Kennedy, who helped launch the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, the country's first Community Development Corporation. Restoration drew unprecedented federal funds and soon pioneered influential strategies of brownstone revitalization and local business development. As it evolved in the 1970s, Restoration reflected the dual goals of employing low-income residents and retaining Bed-Stuy's middle class -- a difficult balancing act, especially in a moment of accelerating disinvestment, mounting crime, and waning political will. Nevertheless, Restoration provided a model that community groups nationwide would follow into the 1980s and beyond.

After the 2016 United States presidential election, people became newly involved in social action and civic engagement efforts around the nation. This participation involved joining both established and newly developing groups. One newly developed group was Indivisible. Indivisible chapters were created all over the country; group goals included resisting the aims of the Trump administration and saving democracy. The chapters looked different depending on the local context and group member composition. Some early participants moved on; other activists remained involved in this work over time. Not enough has been understood about their reasons for staying committed, or what kind of learning and changes resulted from their involvement in these communities. This study considered the Indivisible participants who were new to activism, and their experiences with learning, sustained involvement, and community. This study focused on the factors that kept new activists involved in Indivisible social action efforts from 2017 to 2020, what participants learned or how they changed through their involvement, and the roles of community in participants’ learning or development. Participants were involved for a minimum of two years; 93% had been involved for four to five-plus years at the time of the study (n=51). All of the study participants were able to articulate what they had learned through their participation in Indivisible activities. Learning more about the experiences of new activists was prioritized to understand how to support adult learners drawn to social activism and civic engagement in the future. This qualitative case study included accounts from participants in Indivisible groups from around the United States. Data were collected from 55 participants who submitted demographic questionnaires with critical incident questionnaires, with a subset of 22 participants then doing a follow-up interview. A different subset of four participants also participated in a focus group. The study found eight factors that sustained involvement, seven sub-factors that could help to sustain involvement, and three factors that may hinder involvement. The most significant factors were: (1) Community relationships and friendships, (2) Making a difference and thinking more was possible, and (3) Having a sense of duty, and belief that quitting was not an option. The most reported sub-factors were: (1) Supportive family members and friends and (2) Indivisible’s flexible format helping participants make it work for their interests and contexts. There were eleven findings specific to learning. The learning and changes findings included: (1) Participants learned about democracy and activism; (2) Participants learned to contribute and work together in community; (3) Participants had increased consciousness; (4) Participants experienced leadership or personal development; (5) Participants reported becoming more empowered, assertive, and politically engaged; (6) Learning was supported and facilitated in Indivisible communities through several community aspects. The findings of this study may be of interest to adult learning professionals interested in learning that took place within social action or civic engagement activities, and for people seeking to encourage and support new participation in social action organizations.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed Jan. 9, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-330).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This study questions if the advocacy efforts of community based organizations, like community development corporations, voluntary member associations, and community action agencies, can achieve policy development. Policy development is defined as the proposal of a policy by a community based organization. That policy proposal receives the attention of local decision makers for consideration. This study uses the stages of the policy process to assess what coordinated activities are most effective to achieve policy development. It was concluded that community based organizations can achieve policy development, if they identify an issue or problem, conduct some level of strategic planning, create a policy agenda, and seek access to decision makers. In all three case analyses, the hybrid organization, community action agency, and the voluntary member association were able to achieve policy development. This research does not focus on policy impact or evaluation. The goal was to ascertain how effective an organization can be at proposing a solution and receiving the attention of local decision makers. This research explores how organizational development can become the foundation for advocating for issues and achieve policy development. Community based organizations are not only government funded service providers, but also community collaborators and educators who stimulate citizen participation and increase public awareness about social issues. Their role as autonomous service providers puts them in a conundrum because of their funding streams. Since the 1950s, researchers have explored the roles and responsibilities of government-funded service providers. This study provides an overview of the roles of community based organizations and activities that define their political participation. It explores how these organizations mitigate issues to ensure overall community success.

When collective action for community is defined as local development or as a struggle for survival different understandings are in focus. Politically, this kind of community action is defined as local development and understood in terms of growth and economics. An economic approach to community action is also emphasised in the EU-programmes that support local development groups and projects. On the other hand local groups describe their activities as a struggle for community and community survival. Inspired by feministic research approaches and with an interest in human aspects and values this study investigates meanings of community action as experienced and expressed by rural inhabitants and activists. The study is based on fieldwork that was carried out in a small rural community in the northern inlands of Sweden: Trehörningsjö. Since the middle of the 1990s, the women in Trehörningsjö have driven collective action to uphold the community. With its point of departure in the community and expanding into the arenas of reserach and politics, the study takes on the form of a reflexive research process in which the researcher's former knowledge and new understandings are made visible and discussed parallel with the interpretations made. The main focus of the study is the activist's demand of voice, visibility and worth. The first chapter presents the local community and provides a background to the study. The chapter includes an account of the reflexive approach that widened the field of research from a local to a translocal study of community action. In chapters two, three, four and five the struggle for community is reflected through fieldwork experiences in Trehörningsjö and other arenas beyond the village. Situated events and instances of collective action such as the fight for the local health care centre, are analysed as symbolic expressions of community values and rural importance. From chapter two and onwards, the study follows the footsteps of the leading female activist in and beyond the community itself; that is, the day-to-day work, meetings, conferences and other places where community action is acted out. The struggle for community is proven to focus on translocal rather than local action. In chapter six the fieldwork experiences - that tell about resistance and a struggle for community values and perspectives - are placed in the wider context of the rural development movement, local development research and governmental rural policy in Sweden. On all these arenas community action tend to be interpreted as local development in line with a growth perspective, rather than as community protests and struggles that expresses other meanings. Chapter seven takes the analyses and discussion further, and relates community struggle to concepts such as civil society and social economy. Anthony Giddens concept of life politics and Alberto Meluccis concept of collective action are used to deepen the analysis on how humane meanings and relation based aspects of community action are made invisible on the political "growht and development" agenda. Community struggle presents a possibility for rural inhabitants to (re)define and reclaim their community and themselves as important and valuable. However, to be able to understand what the concept of community struggle expresses, and demands, it needs to be acknowledged as a form of action that has the potential to challenge established bureaucratic and political defintions, which, in practice, proves to be difficult.