Event Title
How Do We Go On? Community and Individual Self-care
Location
Diamond 223
Start Date
30-4-2015 2:54 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 3:55 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
Throughout my organizing, I find myself exhausted, tired, and wondering about how it is possible that I still go on without achieving any tangible changes. Last year, I had the honor to meet and collaborate with members of 350CentralMaine (350CM) - a small, isolated, but active group of people who have been fighting for climate justice for years. The more I became involved with them, the more I became amazed by their persistence, willingness to learn and understand, and optimism about the future. These encounters made me wonder about how individuals retain their energy through long time activism. I am doing this research for 350CM members and myself. This fall, I went through a very intensive training that helped me to understand my self-motivation to organize and to determine ways in which I can gain and retain energy. I hope that through in-depth interviews with the 350CM members, I will help them reveal their own self-interest (in organizing, this method is called one-on-one) and find new ways how to preserve energy. Additionally, I think that having a better understanding of how one retains her or his energy while organizing can be helpful for anybody who wants to became/is active in fighting for a better world for everyone. Research question: Which ways do community-based activists use to retain energy in long-term organizing?
Faculty Sponsor
Winifred Tate
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. Anthropology Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Social Sciences
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1387
How Do We Go On? Community and Individual Self-care
Diamond 223
Throughout my organizing, I find myself exhausted, tired, and wondering about how it is possible that I still go on without achieving any tangible changes. Last year, I had the honor to meet and collaborate with members of 350CentralMaine (350CM) - a small, isolated, but active group of people who have been fighting for climate justice for years. The more I became involved with them, the more I became amazed by their persistence, willingness to learn and understand, and optimism about the future. These encounters made me wonder about how individuals retain their energy through long time activism. I am doing this research for 350CM members and myself. This fall, I went through a very intensive training that helped me to understand my self-motivation to organize and to determine ways in which I can gain and retain energy. I hope that through in-depth interviews with the 350CM members, I will help them reveal their own self-interest (in organizing, this method is called one-on-one) and find new ways how to preserve energy. Additionally, I think that having a better understanding of how one retains her or his energy while organizing can be helpful for anybody who wants to became/is active in fighting for a better world for everyone. Research question: Which ways do community-based activists use to retain energy in long-term organizing?
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/215