Assessing the Transformative Significance of Movements & Activism: Lessons from A Postcapitalist Politics

Abstract

How do researchers and/or practitioners know when change efforts are bringing about significanttransformation? Here we draw on a theory of change put forward by the feminist economicgeographers, Julie Graham and Katherine Gibson. Proposing “a postcapitalist politics” thatbuilds on possibility rather than probability, they direct theoretical attention and communityengaged action research to recognizing and supporting non-capitalist economic practices andsensibilities that already exist despite the dominance of capitalism that keeps them hidden andignored and to understanding the “reluctant subject” of change efforts. We enter into aconversation with their theory of change by inferring criteria for assessing significance and usingthose criteria in dialogue with two social movements we have researched: the feminist movementin Bogotá in the 1970s and 1980s and the contemporary local food movement in North Carolina.Lessons from these movements, in turn, help refine the criteria. Gibson-Graham are unusual – andconsequently resonant with cultural-historical activity theory and related social practice theoriesof identity – in that they bring into dialogue theorists of the political and those interested inembodiment and the micro-politics of everyday life enabling both to better understand and supportconditions for positive social and economic transformation.