Sparring with safety, risk, and difference: Moral community inclusion in a grass -roots feminist organization.
Item
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Title
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Sparring with safety, risk, and difference: Moral community inclusion in a grass -roots feminist organization.
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Identifier
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AAI3144080
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identifier
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3144080
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Creator
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Bertram, Corrine C.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Michelle Fine
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Date
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2004
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Psychology, Social | Women's Studies
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Abstract
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This study is a multi-method qualitative analysis of the practices of creating a community of moral inclusion at a Brooklyn-based grassroots anti-violence education organization. Drawing on ethnographic fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews, organizational materials, and a focus group, I analyzed data using content and discursive analytical frames. The analysis traces the practices of moral inclusion across three levels: the body work of the space (i.e., self-defense and Goju karate, particularly sparring), the intragroup practices that recognize difference and distribute its costs across community members, and beyond the organizational structure in a conflict over an anti-violence mural created by teen women from the organization and whitewashed by the corporate owner of the wall. I argue that women bring different embodied biographies to the physical work of the organization. Sparring creates a context in which women begin to negotiate pleasure, safety, and risk---all key aspects of community building. Next, difference work blossoms into the intragroup through practices that encourage participants to include everyone across difference and the creation of micro-spaces of segregation where groups that have been historically marginalized are given respite from privileged participants. The final analysis focuses on moving the community vision outside the organization into the local neighborhood. A group of teen women from the organization created an anti-violence mural that highlighted tensions in the neighborhood about race, violence, and youth. The analysis across these levels occasions the development of a set of practices of moral inclusion that generalize to settings beyond the organization and Brooklyn---cultivating risk and safety together, creating micro-spaces of segregation, encouraging critical distance, extending moral community, understanding the impermanence of outcome.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
