scholarly journals Movement building responses to COVID-19: lessons from the JASS mobilisation fund

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Awino Okech ◽  
Shereen Essof ◽  
Laura Carlsen

AbstractThis article draws on the work of Just Associates (JASS), a feminist movement support organisation that strengthens the leadership and organising capacity of community-based women networks in Southern Africa, Southeast Asia, and Mesoamerica, to transform the structures that perpetuate inequality and violence. We analyse qualitative interviews and surveys drawn from recipients of the JASS mobilisation fund (JMF), an innovative financial crisis support mechanism for feminist movements. We argue that localisation strategies deployed by women’s networks supported by the JMF in response to COVID-19, challenge dominant humanitarian responses that de-centre feminist movements, local knowledge, and expertise. By accounting for local knowledge generated from long histories of movement building, building collective power, and challenging racialised and gendered responses to humanitarian crises, women’s collectives and networks supported through the JMF developed contextually relevant responses that challenge patriarchal structural barriers heightened by COVID-19.

2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1640-1649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janine S Bruce ◽  
Monica M De La Cruz ◽  
Gala Moreno ◽  
Lisa J Chamberlain

AbstractObjectiveTo examine a library-based approach to addressing food insecurity through a child and adult summer meal programme. The study examines: (i) risk of household food insecurity among participants; (ii) perspectives on the library meal programme; and (iii) barriers to utilizing other community food resources.DesignQuantitative surveys with adult participants and qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of adult participants.SettingTen libraries using public and private funding to serve meals to children and adults for six to eight weeks in low-income Silicon Valley communities (California, USA) during summer 2015.SubjectsAdult survey participants (≥18 years) were recruited to obtain maximum capture, while a sub-sample of interview participants was recruited through maximum variation purposeful sampling.ResultsSurvey participants (n161) were largely Latino (71 %) and Asian (23 %). Forty-one per cent of participants screened positive for risk of food insecurity in the past 12 months. A sub-sample of programme participants engaged in qualitative interviews (n67). Interviewees reported appreciating the library’s child enrichment programmes, resources, and open and welcoming atmosphere. Provision of adult meals was described as building community among library patrons, neighbours and staff. Participants emphasized lack of awareness, misinformation about programmes, structural barriers (i.e. transportation), immigration fears and stigma as barriers to utilizing community food resources.ConclusionsFood insecurity remains high in our study population. Public libraries are ideal locations for community-based meal programmes due to their welcoming and stigma-free environment. Libraries are well positioned to link individuals to other social services given their reputation as trusted community organizations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-92
Author(s):  
Muhammad Mahsun ◽  
Misbah Zulfa Elizabeth ◽  
Solkhah Mufrikhah

This article analyses the factors leading to the success of women candidates in the 2019 elections in Central Java. Recent scholarship on women’s representation in Indonesia has highlighted the role that dynastic ties and relationships with local political elites play in getting women elected in an environment increasingly dominated by money politics and clientelism. Our case study of women candidates in Central Java belonging to the elite of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU)-affiliated women’s religious organisations Muslimat and Fatayat shows that strong women candidates with grassroots support can nonetheless win office. Using the concepts of social capital and gender issue ownership, and clientelism, we argue that women candidates can gain a strategic advantage when they “run as women.” By harnessing women’s networks and focusing on gender issues to target women voters, they are able to overcome cultural, institutional, and structural barriers to achieve electoral success even though they lack resources and political connections.


2001 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sagari R. Ramdas ◽  
Yakshi ◽  
Girijana Deepika

This paper discusses women's role, resource access control and decision-making power in the context of rapid changes in rural livelihoods, local knowledge systems and NRM. Participatory research was carried out in collaboration with NGOs and community-based organisations in six distinct agro-ecological regions of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, with a focus on eco nomically and socially marginalised communities. The research revealed that state policies have resulted in dramatic changes from food to commercial crops. This has threatened food and fodder security, the biodiversity of crops, natural flora, local livestock and poultry breeds, and led to unsustainable extraction of ground water and high levels of indebtedness. Women have borne the brunt. Women who formerly played key decision-making roles have been marginalised, their knowledge and expertise made valueless. Traditionally also women have been denied access to certain kinds of knowledge that constrain their livelihoods. Participatory research has empow ered women to take the lead in movements to challenge mainstream paradigms of sustainable development.


Ethnicities ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 146879682199990
Author(s):  
Sagnik Dutta

This article is an ethnographic exploration of a women’s sharia court in Mumbai, a part of a network of such courts run by women qazi (Islamic judges) established across India by members of an Islamic feminist movement called the Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan (Indian Muslim Women’s Movement). Building upon observations of adjudication, counselling, and mediation offered in cases of divorce and maintenance by the woman qazi (judge), and the claims made by women litigants on the court, this article explores the imaginaries of the heterosexual family and gendered kinship roles that constitute the everyday social life of Islamic feminism. I show how the heterosexual family is conceptualised as a fragile and violent institution, and divorce is considered an escape route from the same. I also trace how gendered kinship roles in the heterosexual conjugal family are overturned as men fail in their conventional roles as providers and women become breadwinners in the family. In tracing the range of negotiations around the gendered family, I argue that the social life of Islamic feminism eludes the discourses and categories of statist legal reform. I contribute to existing scholarship on Islamic feminism by exploring the tension between the institutionalist and everyday aspects of Islamic feminist movements, and by exploring the range of kinship negotiations around the gendered family that take place in the shadow of the rhetoric of ‘law reform’ for Muslim communities in India.


2022 ◽  
pp. 088626052110675
Author(s):  
Alexa Sardina ◽  
Nicole Fox

Over the past two decades, America taken part of a broader global trend of “memorial mania” in which memorials dedicated to remembering injustice have exploded into public space. Memorials that facilitate the centering of marginalized narratives of violence hold significant power for social change. This article focuses on one such space: The Survivors Memorial in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Survivors Memorial opened in October 2020 and is the first public memorial honoring survivors of sexual violence. Despite the progress of the anti-rape and feminist movements as well as a variety of legal interventions designed to address sexual violence and empower, many survivors are left without a sense of justice or institutional or community recognition. Drawing on 21 in-depth, qualitative interviews with individuals involved in all aspects of the memorial project, this article documents how one community mobilized to create a space for survivors whose voices are often overlooked, disbelieved and silenced by the criminal justice system, practitioners, and communities. In focusing on how participants narrate the significance and meaning of the Survivors Memorial, this article uncovers how social, political, and local circumstances coalesced to make the Memorial possible. These factors include local leadership, the prevalence of sexual violence, the unique structure of the Minneapolis park structure, and the rise of the #MeToo movement. Interviews illuminate that participants worked to intentionally construct the Memorial as an accessible and visible space that centers on providing all sexual violence survivors with public acknowledgment of their experiences, while simultaneously engaging community members in dialogs about sexual violence, ultimately, laying the foundation for sexual violence prevention efforts.


Author(s):  
Elizabeth L. Andrade ◽  
Nicole D. Barrett ◽  
Mark C. Edberg ◽  
Matthew W. Seeger ◽  
Carlos Santos-Burgoa

Abstract Objective: This study aimed to examine factors that may have contributed to community disaster resilience following Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Methods: In April 2018, qualitative interviews (n = 22) were conducted with stakeholders in 7 Puerto Rican municipalities (9% of total). Transcripts were deductively and inductively coded and analyzed to identify salient topics and themes, then examined according to strategic themes from the Federal Emergency Management Association’s (FEMA) Whole Community Approach. Results: Municipal preparedness efforts were coordinated, community-based, leveraged community assets, and prioritized vulnerable populations. Strategies included (1) multi-sectoral coordination and strategic personnel allocation; (2) neighborhood leader designation as support contacts; (3) leveraging of community leader expertise and social networks to protect vulnerable residents; (4) Censuses of at-risk groups, health professionals, and first responders; and (5) outreach for risk communication and locally tailored protective measures. In the context of collapsed telecommunications, communities implemented post-disaster strategies to facilitate communication with the Puerto Rican Government, between local first responders, and to keep residents informed, including the use of: (1) police radios; (2) vehicles with loudspeakers; (3) direct interpersonal communication; and (4) solar-powered Internet radio stations. Conclusions: Adaptive capacities and actions of Puerto Rican communities exemplify the importance of local solutions in disasters. Expanded research is recommended to better understand contributors to disaster resilience.


2015 ◽  
Vol 54 (4I-II) ◽  
pp. 825-840
Author(s):  
Hidayat Ullah Khan ◽  
Takashi Kurosaki

The approach of community-based development (CBD) is expected to improve targeting and reduce programme costs of poverty reduction policies, besides other positive contributions [Mansuri and Rao (2004)]. 1 Furthermore, the use of local knowledge is expected to bear greater relevance in a situation where credible monetary data for potential use in targeting activities are not available. According to Alatas, et al. (2012), in developing countries—where the majority of potential target group is employed in the informal sector—the availability of verifiable income records is always an issue. Therefore, it is difficult to identify target groups by employing conventional targeting techniques such as means tests. For these reasons, identification through the CBD approach is expected to improve targeting.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 30
Author(s):  
Kathleen McMullin ◽  
Sylvia Abonyi ◽  
Maria Mayan ◽  
Pamela Orr ◽  
Carmen Lopez-Hille ◽  
...  

On the Canadian Prairies, First Nations and Métis peoples are disproportionately affected by tuberculosis (TB) compared to other Canadians. Statistics show enduring transmission and high rates of active TB disease. Despite awareness of the social determinants of TB transmission—such as substance abuse, comorbidities, and basic needs being unmet—transmission and outbreaks continue to occur among Aboriginal people. The Determinants of Tuberculosis Transmission project is a mixed methods, interdisciplinary study that used quantitative questionnaires and qualitative interviews to look more closely at patients’ experiences of TB. Provincial Network Committees (PNCs) comprised of Elders, traditionalists, community-based TB workers, and health researchers in three participating provinces guided the project from inception through to data analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. The collaborative efforts of the patients, the research team, and the PNCs uncovered a continuing influence of colonization in TB transmission. Overwhelming feelings of apathy and despair for the hold that TB continues to have in the lives of patients, families, and communities is captured by the Cree word “keyam,” which may be translated as “to give up” or to ask, “What is the use?” This paper explores the concept of keyam in relation to TB transmission.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Albert ◽  
Alifereti Tawake ◽  
Ron Vave ◽  
Paul Fisher ◽  
Alistair Grinham

There has been a resurgence in community-based management of coral reef resources in the developing world over the last two decades. However, many of the threats to reef ecosystems are increasing at a rate beyond local knowledge acquisition. Consequently, there is a continuing need for management tools and monitoring to support community-based approaches. Using algal, fish and reef indicators we provide a rapid assessment method of herbivorous fishes in Locally Managed Marine Areas in Fiji. The algal indicator technique provided a time-integrated assessment of the process of herbivory within Locally Managed Marine Areas and could be used by untrained community members to quantify management responses. Generally, reefs with higher herbivore biomass had a diverse low biomass of algae typical of healthy reefs. Reefs with fewer herbivores had a higher biomass of turf or leathery algae typical of degraded reefs. These results show that simple ecological indicators can be a useful addition to the existing local knowledge that underpins community-based management.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-459
Author(s):  
Kristin Elizabeth Yarris ◽  
Brenda Garcia-Millan ◽  
Karla Schmidt-Murillo

Abstract Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in 2017 with 29 volunteers in the US state of Oregon, in this article, we critically examine volunteers’ motivations to aid migrants and refugees in an overtly hostile political period. Our central aim is understanding what sustains local volunteer actions to offer welcome to refugees when state policies and practices are exclusionary and unwelcoming. Considering these community-based efforts as a form of volunteer humanitarianism, we discuss three central motivations for these efforts: first, personal and family histories connect volunteers in intimate ways to migrant and refugee struggles; second, volunteers are therefore affectively motivated to help, drawing on powerful emotions to sustain their efforts; and third, these local volunteer efforts strive to reimagine US citizenship and national belonging in more inclusionary ways.


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