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Direct Link to Full 6-Page Text:

http://ukfeminista.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Naila-Kabeer_The-power-of-association.pdf

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http://www.awid.org/News-Analysis/New-Resources2/A-New-Resource-Article-UK-Feminista-Thinkpiece-The-Power-of-Association-reflecting-on-women-s-collective-action-as-a-force-for-social-change - AWID

 

UK Feminista Thinkpiece: "The Power Of Association: Reflecting On Women’s Collective Action As A Force For Social Change"

12/12/2012 - "We live in an era of growing individualism as the doctrine of the free market takes hold in country after country across the world. The only form of power celebrated by this doctrine is the power we exercise as consumers, a very limited form of power for most of us since it depends very directly on how much money we can bring to our desire for consumption.

While Thatcher’s view that ‘there is no such thing as society, there are only individuals and families’ may have been replaced in the UK by Cameron’s rhetoric about ‘the big society’, both are motivated by a similar hostility towards the state and a similar refusal to acknowledge our collective responsibility for each other.

Flying in the face of this rising tide of individualism is the very different notion of power embodied in the continued collective efforts of women across the world to bring about change in their own lives and in the societies in which they live. The power of association and collective action, its capacity to transform the lives and livelihoods of marginalised groups, particularly poor women in poor countries, has been a continuous thread running through the history of these countries. It has also been one of the constant themes in my own research on gender issues in development over the last 25 years or so as I have struggled to understand what it is about collective action that gives it its transformative power.

There is an uplifting element to collective action. I was reminded of this when I attended the twelfth International Forum of the Association of Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) held in Istanbul earlier this year. Over 2000 women attended – many more would have come if the conference venue could have accommodated them. What was uplifting about the forum was the sheer diversity of issues around which women – and men – across the world were organizing: from the struggles of Kurdish women to the fight-back against anti-trafficking laws by sex workers’ organisations, from women struggling to find their voice in the trade union movement to the disability groups’ demand for recognition and rights.

What was equally inspiring were the efforts of the conference organisers to be as inclusive as possible, to ensure respect for difference. It is one of the commonplaces of the women’s movement that ‘women are not a homogenous category’, that they are divided by their class, race, location and all the other markers of difference. That they can nevertheless come together and gain strength from gatherings of this kind is testimony to the power of a shared and inclusive politics..."

By Naila Kabeer