feminist webs making transgenerational participatory feminist history niamh moore cresc, university...

Feminist WebsMaking Transgenerational Participatory Feminist History

Niamh Moore CRESC, University of Manchester andFeminist Webs

Outline• What is Feminist Webs?• How did I get involved?• What is research? / What is research for Feminist

Webs?– who is it for? – who does it?– what is it for?– what are the outcomes/outputs?– Feminist Webs as a ‘boundary object’

• What next for Feminist Webs?

What is Feminist Webs?

• Youth workers• Young women• Academics• Artists, film-makers, practitioners, etc

Feminist Webs – A Herstory

• 2006-2007 ‘Done Hair and Nails Now What?’

• 2008-2009 participatory transgenerational oral herstories; film ‘feminist webs the journey’

• 2009-2010 the tour, the archive, the zine, the postfeminist booklet, the banner, the animation

• 2011-2012 women and girls are strong! Exhibition at the People’s History Museum, Manchester; The Feminist Webs print on demand book;

From the Young Women’s Group Allotment to Feminist Webs

Challenging the traditional academic research model

• Literature review• Develop research questions• Research design• Plan methodology• Carry out research• Analysis and interpretation• Findings/reports/publications

Feminist Webs as Participatory Research

What is research•Who does it•Who is it for•What is it for•What are the outcomes and outputs

Out of the attic and into the archive ....2007 young women created an archive and interviewed feminists to gather oral histories/herstories

Femzine and the Feminist Webs Book

Feminist Webs as a ‘Boundary Object’

Boundary object: ‘to mean a shared space, where exactly the sense of here and there are confounded’ (Star 2010: 602-603).

‘boundary objects are a sort of arrangement that allow different groups to work together without consensus’ (Star 2010: 602)

Reflections

– who is it for? – who does it?– what is it for?– what are the outcomes/outputs?

‘When translating feminist struggles and their achievements into theories, we would rather be better with/because of – than better than those who came before us’ (Bracke and Bellacasa 2004:314).

Feminist Webs – what next

• Lots of outputs so farNext• Grant applications – academic and non-

academic• publications• activities and events

• How will these be negotiated?

Feminist Webs – A Found PoemAbout forwardnessAbout inter-connectednessFull of spacesAnd also lines which are the connections and the storiesThey hold people together like a netPoints of understanding across generationsA way of representing what feminism is and making links with

other social justice movementsSticky: they hold people togetherBut people can also get stuck in themNot unusualNot innocent: ask the fly!

Niamh Mooreniamh.moore@manchester.ac.uk

Feminist Webshttp://www.feministwebs.com

feministwebs@yahoo.co.uk