Hacking feminist futures: Collective memories of polyphonic organizing
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Authors
Many feminist organization and management scholars align with feminist activists, offering their research as a form of intervention. Thus, research engagement with/as organizational practice may be influenced by feminist epistemologies that emphasize situated and embodied becoming. Assuming that knowledge cannot exist independently of action, the present study explores the potentials of polyphonic feminist organizing as a mode of “knowing-as-action.” More specifically, we work with collective memories of organizing Feminist Futures Copenhagen (FFC), an activist hackathon in which we were all involved. Using polyphony to identify dynamics of in- and exclusion in our own organizing practices, we find three tensions that simultaneously pull centripetally toward unison and push centrifugally toward difference: resistance/recognition, solidarity/difference, and research/practice. Reflecting on their various articulations across our memories, we examine these tensions and explore their productive potential under the labels of “Emergent subject positions,” “Giving and taking space,” and “Staying with the process.” Thus, we, as feminist organizers, and researchers, configure our “knowing-as-action” of FFC polyphonically. Methodologically, we show how creating and remembering moments of embodied feminism may facilitate the integration of research and activism around polyphonic tensions. By sharing our experiences with feminist organizing, we create an opportunity to reflect upon the role of activism within feminist management and organization studies. We suggest that methods of polyphonic feminist organizing offer productive means to navigate and articulate ongoing tensions between research and practice.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Organization |
| Number of pages | 25 |
| ISSN | 1350-5084 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 15.12.2015 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025
- Collaborative research, collective memory work, feminist organizing, hackathon, polyphony
- Management studies
- Gender and Diversity
