{"title":"Horizontality and gender in contemporary social movements","authors":"Naomi Orton, Liana de Andrade Biar","doi":"10.1075/ni.19045.ort","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The notion of horizontal, “structureless” organisation continues to hold resounding appeal for those seeking to create\n more egalitarian societies. Given horizontality’s comfortable status as the golden child of contemporary social movements, in this article\n we ask to what extent symmetrical relations may materialize discursively within an ostensibly horizontal group. To do so, we analyse two\n narratives of resistance which emerge during a meeting of bicycle advocates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Uniting insider and outsider\n perspectives, our analysis suggests that gendered asymmetries are simultaneously contested and reified during the activists’ narrative and\n interactional practice. As such, this study highlights the need to take a critical stance towards discursive practice in order to further\n understand the construction of horizontality. In so doing, it may then be possible to build communities which foster minority groups’ active\n participation and the very transformative practice sought out by those who engage in social movements.","PeriodicalId":46671,"journal":{"name":"Narrative Inquiry","volume":"30 1","pages":"236-270"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9000,"publicationDate":"2020-05-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"5","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Narrative Inquiry","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.19045.ort","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 5
Abstract
The notion of horizontal, “structureless” organisation continues to hold resounding appeal for those seeking to create
more egalitarian societies. Given horizontality’s comfortable status as the golden child of contemporary social movements, in this article
we ask to what extent symmetrical relations may materialize discursively within an ostensibly horizontal group. To do so, we analyse two
narratives of resistance which emerge during a meeting of bicycle advocates in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Uniting insider and outsider
perspectives, our analysis suggests that gendered asymmetries are simultaneously contested and reified during the activists’ narrative and
interactional practice. As such, this study highlights the need to take a critical stance towards discursive practice in order to further
understand the construction of horizontality. In so doing, it may then be possible to build communities which foster minority groups’ active
participation and the very transformative practice sought out by those who engage in social movements.
期刊介绍:
Narrative Inquiry is devoted to providing a forum for theoretical, empirical, and methodological work on narrative. Articles appearing in Narrative Inquiry draw upon a variety of approaches and methodologies in the study of narrative as a way to give contour to experience, tradition, and values to next generations. Particular emphasis is placed on theoretical approaches to narrative and the analysis of narratives in human interaction, including those practiced by researchers in psychology, linguistics and related disciplines.