Indelible stain: territorial stigmatization and the limits of resistance

This article examines the impact of territorial stigma in Limerick, a peripheral Irish city, and whether such stigma can be successfully resisted. It begins by exploring the development of the concept of territorial stigma and its five key characteristics. We reflect on how stigmatization has impacted communities in this city. We then utilize Katz’s (2004) three dimensions of resistance—resistance (denoting an ‘oppositional consciousness’), resilience (denoting coping with life under territorial stigma) and reworking (denoting the recasting of the objects of stigmatization through alternative interpretations) to make sense of how stigmatized identities are being challenged/erased/masked in the context of a top-down ‘rebranding’ of Limerick City. Ultimately the article argues that the capacity of grassroots resistance alone to alter discourses, which although locally focused are intermeshed with much larger ideological conflicts, is questionable.

Stepping out of the ‘Difference’: Discerning the Dalit Female Standpoint in Bama’s Sangati

The term Dalit carries, within itself, a structural negativity since its inception in every sphere of life be it political, social or economic. It encapsulates the trials and tribulations of a crushed and suppressed community, which is known as the ‘Dalit community’. Dalit literature is a manifestation of the life of Dalit community, which is nothing but a painful saga of an endless suffering. Initially, it was viewed as an all-male affair, but in recent times we have seen the emergence of very powerful narratives by Dalit females. Thus, paving the way for Dalit feminist literature with a new perspective and new ideology which can be termed as ‘Dalit female standpoint’. It unravels some hidden territories of Dalit females’ lives and talks about their situation, location and experiences. Sangati, a very powerful novel written by Bama, a Dalit female writer, stands testimony to the things mentioned above as it presents the agency and audacity of the Dalit women who question their subjugation and raise a step against the biased society. Their knowledge towards the outer world gives them a new outlook and fresh perspective on life as they re-examine gender relations as fundamental to the broader ideologies of caste. The present article seeks to explore the life conditions of Dalit females as they are caught in the vortex of caste, gender and class and their grit and resolve to survive despite all odds by harping on their oppositional consciousness.

Decoloniality and the Humanities: Possibilities and Predicaments

The humanities continue to witness a decolonial turn. The decolonial project is radical and dangerous because it is an epistemic, political, and ethical project that marches toward a vision of humanity-in-difference. The exhaustion of the episteme, border, and oppositional consciousness politics, though, exposes limitations and indicates the difficulty in actually doing decolonial work. This essay traces decolonial discourse and focuses on its affordances, as well as its predicaments. This has implications for research and teaching.

The bright lights: The development of oppositional consciousness among DACAmented Latino youth

This study asks the question, “How do diverse social spaces support or constrain the development of oppositional consciousness among DACAmented Latina/o youth?” Our analysis is based on 40 in-depth interviews with Latina/o youth and young adults living in Colorado who received a two-year reprieve from deportation and work authorization through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program enacted in 2012. The findings indicate the development of three points along a continuum of oppositional consciousness, which we term latent, emergent, and manifest. The implications of this study reveal how social spaces inside and outside of schools in a non-traditional destination can support or constrain the oppositional consciousness of liminally legal DACA recipients.

Obstacles to Nurses’ Labor Militancy in Central America: Toward a Framework for Cross-National Comparison of Nurses’ Collective Action

This paper seeks to understand the low level of nurses’ labor militancy in El Salvador and Nicaragua compared with many other countries. Key to the analysis is the concept of oppositional consciousness, which was developed for the study of how oppressed groups convert anger over unjust treatment into vocal and even disruptive demands for change. I use data collected through interviews and focus groups to argue that while nurses in El Salvador and Nicaragua face many of the same hindrances to militancy seen elsewhere, they are more exposed to cultural and institutional forces that discourage a contestational stance. Chief among these are the influence of religion in nurses’ schooling and socialization, and nurses’ lack of experience with unions specific to their occupation. The latter owes, in turn, to particular historical and political factors in each country.

Intersectionality

Among feminists scholars’ critiques of knowledge production has been the disconnect between theory and practice. Feminists of color, in particular, have engaged in this critique in their articulations of themselves as scholars, their research foci, and the relevance of their intellectual labor to their communities’ struggles for social justice. Their approach to intersectionality as a practice linked to social justice is evidenced in their articulation of identities such as “insurgent Black intellectual” and “Xicanista,” as well as practices such as that of “oppositional consciousness.” Describing Black feminism as a social justice project, Patricia Hill Collins defines her work as intellectual activism and considers how engaged scholarship can remain oppositional. The commitment by feminist scholars of color to continue to enact intellectual labor that challenges unjust social, political, economic, and cultural arrangements can be carried out in different ways, but all entail an intersectional practice. I will focus on only two strategies—the assertion by feminist scholars of color of their intellectual labor’s intended intervention, and the careful selection of sites in which to carry out their work—and as I show, both strategies also involve certain risks.