"It's not just for me, it's also for my community": Toward the Decommodification of Self-Care Through Racialized Activists' Care Practices
Date
2023-08-08
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0001-8930-1413
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
To promote change, activists must confront the suffering of their communities, but this process can weigh heavily on them and contribute to burnout. The burden is even heavier for racial minority activists who combat additional stressors associated with discrimination. While many activist organizations promote community care, their conceptualization of community wellness competes with the individual wellness promised by luxury self-care products, inaccessible to those facing financial barriers. The present study challenges this buy-in model of self-care. Using participatory qualitative methods and grounded theory, I have examined how racialized activists in Saskatoon develop their own care practices. Driven by a desire to live their values, participants developed their care practices in five stages: Developing Activist Values, Belonging, Participating in Community Care, Protective Self-Care, and Restorative Self-Care. By the end of the process, participants were sustaining long-term wellness strategies by exercising their values with the support of their communities. The results present a conceptualization of personal wellness that resists commodification by being grounded in community, personal values, and political defiance. The work discusses the implications for conceptualizations of well-being, and directions for future research.
Description
Keywords
Activists, care practices, community-care
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Psychology
Program
Culture and Human Development