Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article

Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Professionalisation and precariousness: perspectives

on the sustainability of activism in everyday life
Silke Roth

Abstract1
Sustainable activism requires both elasticity and rigor, the ability to learn and
compromise as well as the willingness to stick to values and convictions. In this
article I argue that activism and professionalisation are not necessarily
mutually exclusive but that the ability to move from one to another form of
activism is important for the sustainability of activism at the individual,
organisational and movement levels. Acknowledging the diversity of activism
also highlights that activism and everyday life can be intertwined and that
family, community and work can in fact motivate and be sites of activism. The
shift from one sphere and form of activism to another is important at the
individual level in order to prevent burnout. Furthermore such shifts allow for
different tactics, a division of labour and coalition building at the
organisational and movement levels. I introduce some key figures in social
movements who represent different forms of activism and professionalism.
They connect different spheres of activism, take on different roles in and
provide access to various resources to social movements. These key figures
illustrate biographical consequences of activism as well as boundary crossing
between different spheres and activities. Finally, I introduce the case study of a
women’s cooperative to show how activism and professionalism intersect.

Keywords: activism, burn-out, career, cooperative, feminism, key figures,

professionalisation, real utopia, social change organisations, WeiberWirtschaft

Introduction
My article addresses the relationship between professionalisation of social
change organisations2 and activism. Rather than considering activism and
professionalisation as mutually exclusive, I argue that a more nuanced
perspective is necessary in order to better understand how activism can be
sustained at personal, organisational and movement levels. This includes
acknowledging the diversity of activisms as well as the shifts from one form to
another form of activism across the life-course of activists and in the
development of social change organisations and social movements. In this

1I greatly appreciate the insightful comments by Laurence Cox and two anonymous reviewers. I
thank Clare Saunders and Milena Büchs for comments on much earlier versions of this paper.
2For the sake of brevity, but also to highlight similarities (despite significant differences) I will
refer to social movement organisations, non-governmental organisations and third sector
organisations as “social change organisations”.

29
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

article, I will first discuss professionalisation in the context of social change

organisations, then I turn to concepts of activism and burn-out, followed by
introducing some key figures in social movements who represent different
forms of activism and bridge different spheres. I finally discuss the case study of
a women’s cooperative to illustrate the contribution of these key figures and to
explore the relationship between professionalisation, professionalism and
activism.

Professionalisation and its discontents

Literatures on third sector organisations (TSOs), non-governmental
organisations (NGOs) and social movement organisations (SMOs) demonstrate
ambivalence regarding professionalisation processes. Positive evaluations of
professionalisation processes in social change organisations are associated with
the resource mobilisation approach (McCarthy and Zald 1977; Edwards and
McCarthy 2007) that sees little difference between SMOs and interest groups. In
addition, studies that evaluate the impact of social change organisations on
legislation and support for anti-discrimination, development, humanitarianism
and human rights tend to associate success with professionalisation (Keck and
Sikkink 199; Martens 2006; Barnett 2011; Watkins et al. 2012). Formalisation
and professional leadership contribute to the continuity of SMOs and thus to the
sustainability of social movements (Staggenborg 1988). Public and private
funding allows professionalised third sector organisations to hire staff to devote
themselves full-time to the cause.
Whether such organisations have any members and whether the involvement of
members goes beyond paying membership fees and having the option to
participate in annual members meetings varies. Some large membership
organisations – for example Oxfam or Amnesty International – combine staff-
led professionalised national offices with volunteer run shops, groups and
projects at the local level. Hensby et al. (2012) refer to this involvement as
bureaucratic activism due to the fact that these organisations offer limited and
bureaucratised forms of activism for volunteers. However, bureaucratised SMOs
which function as “protest businesses” provide knowledge and expertise and are
able to generate loyalty and trust among members (Hensby et al. 2012). Critical
perspectives on the professionalisation of social change organisations highlight
the consequences of upward accountability – that is accountability to donors,
rather than constituencies – which results in a growing distance between NGOs
and grassroots activists (Dauvergne and LeBaron 2014; Choudry 2015).
According to Smith (2015), the “process of professionalisation,
institutionalisation and bureaucratisation – known as “NGO-isation” is
associated with the institutionalisation and de-radicalisation of movement
demands” (p. 612). What positive and critical perspectives on
professionalisation processes share is that they rarely define professionalisation
and that the terms “professionalisation and professionalism remain ambiguous
and multidimensional” (Ganesh and McAllum 2012: 153).

30
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

So what do professionalisation or professionalism comprise and what

consequences do they have for activism and activists? Although related, the two
concepts refer to different aspects. Professionalisation concerns organisational
form and processes (bureaucratisation, rationalisation, marketisation) whereas
professionalism concerns practice and (occupational) identity (Ganesh and
McAllum 2012: 153). Professionalisation transforms voluntary organisations
and social movement organisations into “formalised, knowledge intensive and
professionally staffed organisations” (Andreassen et al. 2014: 336). These
transformations are related to gaining access, legitimacy and resources from
governments, intergovernmental organisation and private donors. NGOisation
involves access to government agencies and transnational organisations such as
the United Nations (UN) and its agencies as well as the European Union (EU).
Such access includes representing constituencies at the local, national and
international levels as well as access to (limited) funding. Smith (2015)
compares the contemporary incorporation of civil society organisations into the
political process with colonial strategies of indirect rule, i.e. the inclusion of
local elites into the colonial administration in order to prevent mass resistance.
So far, only a few studies focus on those working in such professionalised social
change organisations (but see Frantz 2005; Hopgood 2006; Rodgers 2010;
Eltanani 2016). These studies highlight the motivations of paid staff and their
career opportunities as well as their working conditions which include
precariousness and burnout. In addition, the working lives of humanitarian and
development workers have recently received more attention (Fechter 2012;
Harrison 2013; Roth 2015a; Visser et al. 2016). This research addresses the
tensions, strains and contradictions experienced by paid staff members who
have chosen highly demanding and potentially dangerous work (Fast 2014;
Roth 2015b). The commitment and devotion of paid staff in social change
organisations challenges a strict distinction between activism and
professionalisation processes. I will return to the working conditions in NGOs
below. First, I discuss different forms of activism.

Doing activism, being activist

Who counts as an activist varies widely in the literature on social movements as
well as among those engaged in them. Bobel (2007) notes that movement
participants distinguish between “doing activism” and “being activist”, which
might overlap – or not. Based on her case-study of (mostly) women involved in
menstrual activism, she found that regardless of similar patterns of involvement
not all of those whom she interviewed identified as activists. Some felt that they
did not meet the “perfect standard” because “being activist” required being
“super-active” and engaged in “tireless commitment, selfless sacrifice,
unparalleled devotion” (Bobel 2007: 154). Thus, an activist identity was
grounded in core values of rigour and humility rather than in involvement in
specific actions. Brown and Pickerill (2009: 27) point out that this “perfect
standard” draws on gendered assumptions even though they stress that macho

31
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

heroism related to daring acts during the participation of social action is not
restricted to men (see also Hopgood 2006).
Based on a comparison of participants in four different social movement
organisations (SMO), Corrigall-Brown (2012) also found that the involvement in
activism did not predict whether someone identified or as activist or not. She
found that SMO members who were leftist in ideology and had previously been
involved in social movement activism were more likely to identify as activists
and to stay involved. In contrast, those who had a negative view of activism
rejected an activist identity despite engaging in exactly the same behaviour.
Thus, while Bobel (2007) found that the label “activist” was rejected because
participants felt they did not deserve it, Corrigall-Brown (2012) observed that
participants distanced themselves from it because they resented it.
Still another perspective is offered by Cortese (2015) who, on the basis of
interviews with LBGTQ movement participants, identified three types of activist
identity: emphatics, demarcators and reconcilers. Emphatics identified with an
activist ideal-type, were deeply involved and often movement leaders setting the
standard of activism in the organisation. Demarcators engaged in boundary-
setting and distinguished between “good activists” (themselves engaging in
polite activism) and “bad activists” (others engaging in radical, in-your-face
activism). Reconcilers identified as activists although they did not meet the
criteria of the “perfect standard” of high-level involvement. They had either only
recently joined the movement or their activism had decreased or they perceived
working in their current occupation (for example as teachers) as activism.
Cortese (2015) refers to the latter group as occupational activists. This concept
expands activism beyond the paid and unpaid participation in social movement
organisations and makes an important contribution to our understanding of
sustainability of activism over the life-course.

Trajectories of activism
Social movement research has primarily focused on recruitment into activism
(Klandermans 2007) and to a lesser extent on retention (Corrigall-Brown 2012;
Bunnage 2014) and disengagement (Fillieule 2015). Studies which have
employed a biographical perspective on activism have addressed “biographical
availability” (McAdam 1986), that is whether activism might be constrained by
family or work commitments. However, studies have demonstrated that family
and professional obligations do not affect the participation in non-hazardous,
and even in dangerous actions. For example Nepstad and Smith (1999) have
shown that men and women have been involved in solidarity movements with
Central America regardless of their marital status and their careers. On the
contrary, the close connection between various life-spheres means that
commitment is maintained (Passy and Giugni 2000). Moreover, as I will discuss
below, working conditions and parenthood can actually motivate people to
become politically active.

32
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

What the studies that look at persistence in and disengagement from activism
have in common is that they tend to focus on the involvement in one particular
movement or one particular form of protest. For example, Passy and Giugni
(2000) studied members of a SMO of the Swiss solidarity movement. They
found that those who experienced a congruence of life-spheres (activism, work
and family) stayed involved in the movement whereas those who experienced a
disconnection of the life-spheres – for example living with a partner who did not
share the same political goals or making career changes – tended to withdraw
from the movement. However, due to its focus on Third World activism, this
study cannot capture to what extent the involvement of those who disengaged
from the solidarity movement might have moved on other causes, for example
environmentalism. Similarly, Downton and Wehr (1998) who studied activists
in the peace movement found that a congruence of life-spheres, for example
joining a peace commune which allowed activists to share making money and
raising children, contributed to sustaining activism.
Corrigall-Brown (2012) considers different social movements and distinguishes
four different trajectories: persistence, transfer, individual abeyance and
disengagement. Persisters stayed active in the same movement, those who
transfer stayed active in the same movement while moving to another place,
individual abeyance characterises those who interrupted their participation and
resumed it later on whereas disengagement does not involve a return to
activism. Although Corrigall-Brown (2012) acknowledges that activists might
shift from one movement to another and that they resume their engagement
after a period of individual abeyance, she is very much focused on involvement
in “contentious politics” including “participation in both civic and community
social movement organisations and activities, including demonstrating, rallying,
marching, and protesting” (p. 11). Although this conceptualisation includes a
broad range of activities, it does not include occupational activism (Cortese
2014). Occupational activism occurs in paid employment in a range of
occupations including radical social work (Lavalette 2011; Turbett 2014;
Emejulu and Bassel 2015) and academic activism3 (Taylor and Raeburn 1995;
Askins 2009; Brown and Pickerill 2009; Kyle et al. 2011).
I argue that in order to gain a fuller understanding of the sustainability and
trajectories of activism it is important to think about activists as “boundary
crossers” (Lewis 2008; Kyle et al. 2011; Roth 2015a) who move between
different sectors and between paid and unpaid activism over their life-time.
Such a perspective builds on and further develops the notion of “biographical
consequences” (McAdam 1989) of activism, that is what impact activism has on
personal and professional life-spheres. McAdam (1989) found that former
activists were more likely to work in helping professions, however, he does not
identify these occupations as a form of activism. The participation in NGOs can
also lead to a variety of careers, especially when the boundaries between

3Academic activism or academic activists refers to academics who are involved in social
movements and who reconcile their work as researchers and educators with their work as
activists.

33
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

political activism and volunteering is not drawn too strictly (Eliasoph 2013).
Thus, volunteering in Amnesty International as a student can be helpful for a
career as a lawyer, participation and interest in autonomous movements can
contribute to an academic career and voluntary participation in political parties
and trade unions can lead to full-time positions (Roth 2003).
Moreover, voluntary and full-time social-political commitment can be exercised
simultaneously or successively and can be reflected in a variety of forms in
career choice and activism trajectories. Thus, the voluntary commitment in the
workplace lead to a staff position in advocacy work – or vice versa (see also
Taylor 2004). On the basis of four generations of activists, Janet Newman
(2012) shows how voluntary participation in grassroots organisations alternated
with paid positions in trade unions and political parties while academic research
was complemented by voluntary participation in think tanks. Thus activism can
be maintained in different forms and with different material and personal
consequences. In the next section, I discuss burnout as a risk to sustained
activism and how it can be prevented.

Experiencing and preventing burn-out

How can socio-political commitment be sustained over the life-course? What
are the requirements for "personal sustainability"(Cox 2009, Cox 2010), which
are also important for the sustainability of social movements and social change
organisations? Work in social movements can be physically, psychologically,
physically and financially stressful. Maslach and Gomes (2006) identify
exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy as three key components of burnout.
Exhaustion (the individual stress component) is experienced as being
overwhelmed and drained; cynicism (the interpersonal component) is a
response to exhaustion, initially self-protecting it undermines the commitment
to the cause; inefficacy (the self-evaluation component) is experienced as lack of
achievement due to lack of resources and unachievable goals (Maslach and
Gomes 2006, p. 44). Thus, burn-out results not only from vicarious post-
traumatic stress, for example, when working with victims of abuse, but also can
also be triggered by the working conditions in social change organisations which
are characterised by long working days, conflicts and varied frustrations, in
addition they often lack of resources and recognition (Cox 2010).
Gorski and Chen (2015) report that education activists4 experienced chronic
psychological and mental health effects including chronic depression, stress,
anxiety and panic attacks, the decline of physical well-being as well as
disillusionment and hopelessness. Pursuing the “perfect standard” identified by

4Gorski and Chen (2015) define these activists as “social justice activists whose activism
revolves around social justice concerns such as racism, sexism, the corporatisation of the public
sphere, anti-immigrant oppression, and environmental justice as they relate to school and
schooling” (p. 386). However, only those who were involved in unpaid activism were included in
the study even though many worked in educational organisations including universities, schools
and non-profit organisations addressing educational justice (p. 392).

34
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Bobel (2007), they developed a “culture of martyrdom” (Gorski and Chen 2015,
p. 397) that prevented them from engaging in self-care. As social justice activists
they felt that taking advantage of high-quality health-care or taking time out to
sustain themselves would undermine their activism. However, when they
realised that burn-out can lead to disengagement, some of the activists
interviewed changed their attitude towards self-care and became interested in
learning how to overcome the “culture of martyrdom”.
It needs to be emphasised that burnout is not only experienced by volunteers in
social change organisations but also by paid staff. Rodgers (2010) analysed the
work-culture and emotional context of Amnesty International which is
characterised by commitment, sacrifice and guilt. The normative expectations of
selflessness that are reinforced and institutionalised in the organisation result in
high turnover of paid staff. Moreover, it is important to point out that paid
employment in social change organisations is often low paid and precarious as it
depends on unreliable funding and donations (Eltanani 2016).
It is common for (feminist) activists to work on short-term contracts or combine
various part-time jobs or freelance work. After all, most activists have to make a
living – they might work in a helping profession and volunteer in social change
organisations before they find paid employment in social change organisations.
Full-time activists who do not have a paid position in a social change
organisation have to rely on savings, benefits and the support of friends and
family unless they have inherited wealth. Thus, those from privileged
backgrounds will find it easier to volunteer than those who have to provide for
themselves and dependents.5 Notwithstanding international networks,
recognition and prominence, activists’ careers are often precarious (Newman
2012; Faludi 2013).
In order to prevent or overcome burnout, the imbalance between goals and
resources to achieve them needs to be addressed. This can include shifting the
focus of activism and develop more realistic, pragmatic goals (Maslach and
Gomes 2006). Furthermore, engaging in mindfulness practices such as yoga,
tai-chi and meditation can help activists to deal with burnout and become more
effective in the social justice movement (Gorski 2015). Achieving a balance
through paying attention to personal needs, avoiding exhaustion through work,
making time for reflection and play and diversifying activities enables activists
to avoid burnout and contributes to sustaining activism (Downton and Wehr
1997: 543). In her study of feminist and women’s right activists involved in
online campaigning, Gleeson (2016) found that even though the two
campaigners who worked on the campaign as paid part-time employees were in
a precarious position, they remained far longer with the campaign than the
unpaid campaigners. The paid campaigners avoided burnout since they were
able to distance themselves from the campaign and to work fewer hours. At the
same time, the paid campaigners were highly identified with their work and
reported that they spent more hours than needed. Frantz’ (2005) study of NGO

5 Regarding class-differences between activists see also Valocchi (2013).

35
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

staff also highlights how professionalism and social values were intertwined.
Staff emphasised that they wanted to develop professionally in order to be
better able to contribute to the realisation of the aims of the organisations they
were working for.
Activism, paid or unpaid, has “biographical consequences” (McAdam 1989) for
the private lives and professional choices of activists. Burnout is a risk both for
volunteers as well as for staff in social change organisations. In order to sustain
activism, burnout needs to be avoided which includes (what I would call) an
“activism-work-life balance”6. I argue that in order to understand the
development of activism over the life-course it is necessary to acknowledge that
activists might shift from one movement to another or from one tactic to
another, including occupational activism. Such boundary-crossing is overlooked
if one focuses only on one form of activism or only one social movement.
Moreover, it is important to recognise that (in addition to social change
organisations) family, community and work places can also be sites of activism.
In the next section, I provide a brief overview over varieties and different
spheres of activism.

Spheres of activism - varieties of activism

Closely related to the question of how the participation in social movements fits
into the life course is the question what form this involvement takes on. It is
well known that the action repertoires of social movements are extremely
varied, ranging from low-risk (eg peaceful, approved demonstrations) to high
risk (eg, illegal occupations), and low-cost (eg, signing an e-mail petition) to
high-cost (eg time-consuming participation in grassroots discussions) actions
(Tarrow 1998, Taylor and Van Dyke 2007). This means that there is a wide
range of more or less time-consuming and potentially dangerous activities
which can be more or less easily be reconciled with other commitments.
In addition to distinguishing different forms of participation based on cost and
risk, another dimension is the question of whether it is outsider or insider
activism. Outsider activism refers to mobilisation outside political institutions
such as peaceful protests or direct action, in contrast to insider activism
includes “lobbying, testifying, writing legislation, providing public education,
mobilizing constituencies, and supporting women candidates” (Spalter-Roth
and Schreiber 1995, p. 105). Much social movement research has focused on
outsider activism and activism tends to be equated with it, however insider
activism including the involvement in governmental and intergovernmental
organisations has found increasing scholarly attention. In the context of the
women’s movement this includes research on “femocrats” (Eisenstein 1996),
feminists who have taken on positions in local, regional or national
6 There is a wide literature on “work-life” balance which discussed how employment and family
can be reconciled (Eikof et al. 2007; Roberts 2007). This literature has primarily addressed
women’s ability to combine work and care obligations. I suggest developing this further and
consider how activism can be both reconciled with family and paid employment.

36
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

governments. Pettinicchio (2012) points to the central role of institutional

activism7 and encourages overcoming the dichotomy between outsider and
insider activism. Social movements can have more or less outsider status,
moreover insider activists (eg members of Green parties or government
commissions) can provide important resources for grassroots organisations.
The relationship between outsider and insider activism is of interest in many
respects. Of political interest is the ability to create alliances and mobilise
resources (Glasius and Ishkanian 2014). Analytically a differentiated (or
differentiating) look at different forms of participation is important to enable
the division of labour and cooperation and overcome conflict between different
movement actors. In this context, key figures in social movements (which I
discuss later on) who have gained experience in different political contexts and
can mediate between various spheres of activism are of particular importance.
Staff positions in social change organisations and insider activism provide
access to various resources which in turn can be made available to outsider
activism. Moreover, activists might be engaged in multiple forms of activism at
the same time. For example, holding a staff position in an NGO or in local
government does not rule out participation in protests. A biographical
perspective shows that over the life course insider and outsider activism can
alternate or can be exercised simultaneously and result in boundary crossing
between different sectors (Lewis 2008, Roth 2015a). Insider and outsider
activism, exit and latency phases are thus integrated into everyday life and are
in mutual relationship with other spheres of life. Moreover, activism is not
restricted to social movement organisations but can be embedded in everyday
life – in parenting practices, neighbourhood involvement and workplace
engagement.

Family
Parents and "significant others" can have a great influence on the political
socialisation of their children.8 For example, Weigand (2001) found that "red-
diaper babies" who grew up in communist households participated in the
second wave of the women's movement. In her study of NGO staff, Frantz
(2005) documented that in the majority of families of origin political
commitment played an important role. Women in the GDR peace movement felt
that they owed it to their children to fight for their convictions even if this
involved risking prison sentences (Miethe 1999). They perceived that their
parents had been complicit with the Nazi regime and they did not want to be
accused by their own children for not standing up to the communist regime.
Parents can thus be role models and children’s experience of participating in a

7Institutional activists are individuals who effect change “from within organisations and
institutions” (Pettinicchio 2012: 501).
8 Apart from family members (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings etc.), for example
teachers and religious figures (eg pastors) may have an influence on the value system and the
political beliefs of children and young people.

37
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

demonstration, attending an anti-authoritarian day care centre or a Waldorf

school or growing up in shared housing can influence children’s future political
participation. This does not mean that children of leftist, anti-racist, feminist
parents necessarily share the beliefs of their mothers and fathers.
Social movement scholars have so far paid little attention to parenting practices
as a form of activism. However, Sisk and Duncan (2006) discuss parenting in
the context of peace work – it can contribute to raising the next generation of
peace activists as well as contribute to “the own growth as effective peace
worker” (p. 56). Similarly, Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan (2006)
perceive “plant[ing] the seeds of nonviolence in our children” as peace activism
(p. 229). Furthermore, LGBTI parents are constantly confronted with the
question how to raise children in a heteronormative society (Averett 2016).
Thus parents can - consciously and unconsciously, positively and negatively –
influence the political socialisation of their children. It would be of interest to
systematically investigate care work and the gendered division of household
labour as a form of "lifestyle activism", i.e. primarily individual action in the
privacy sphere (Haenfler et al. 2012). Political mothering also includes
community engagement for educational justice (Fuentes 2013, Macdonald 1997)
and health-related issues (Ryan and Cole 2009). Thus, parenting can motivate
social engagement in community and environmental activism, as I discuss in the
next section.

Community and environment

Neighbourhood and environmental activism are also embedded in everyday life
and can be a further expression of parental involvement. Commitment to
environmental issues can be based in the concern for the lives of family
members, and the ethnic community (and social class) (Naples 1998). Pardo
(1995) for example examined the mobilisation of Mexican immigrants in Los
Angeles against a prison and an incinerator in their neighbourhood.9 As
"mothers" they understood themselves initially as defenders of the
neighbourhood, but over time they worked together with environmental groups
across the state. The identity as mothers plays a crucial role for the involvement
in environmental justice activism (Bell and Brown 2010). Of course,
community-activism is not restricted to parents but also includes environmental
and social justice activism of youth (Shah 2011).
Conscious consumption or political consumerism constitutes another form of
activism embedded in everyday life. In this context one can distinguish
"boycotts", thus avoiding products that have been manufactured in an
environmentally stressful way or under exploitative conditions, from "buycotts",
i.e. the acquisition of products produced in an environmentally friendly and fair
way (Balsiger 2010, Neilson 2010, Brown 2013). Such forms of political

9MELA - Mothers of East Los Angeles - a grass-roots organisation comprised also some Catholic
priests and Mexican-American politicians on the city and state level.

38
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

consumerism can be understood as "lifestyle" movements (Haenfler et al 2012).

These individual, private actions can contribute to social change.

Employment
Finally, employment constitutes a central arena for activism. Rank and file
members, full-time trade unionists, women’s and minority officers are active on
behalf of their constituencies, act as mentors, recruit union members and
involve union and non-union members in events (Roth 2000, Roth 2003,
Kirton and Healy 2013). Voluntary and paid representation in the workplace
focusing on the improvement or security of working conditions constitutes an
important form of social activism which is anchored in everyday life.
Furthermore, feminist organisations have been defined as "the places in which
and the means through which the work of the women's movement is done"
(Ferree and Martin 1995: 13) and provide contexts for volunteer and full-time
commitment. Such organisations not only comprise political groups, feminist
magazines and health organisations, but also businesses (Martin, 1990; Ferree
and Martin 1995). Of course, other social movements also offer paid
employment in non-governmental organisations, magazines, book and food
stores, clinics and so on (Rothschild-Whitt 1979, Kleinman 1996, Brown 2013).
As long gender10 structures paid and unpaid work we can observe gender
differences in social movement participation which are characterised by
different experiences and interests. Thus men and women may engage in
various ways for (or against) social change in different stages of their life. Of
course, not just gender, but class, ethnicity, “race”, religion, nationality,
sexuality, age and many other aspects of privilege and discrimination shape the
involvement in social movements. For example, class differences matter with
respect to recruitment and activist identity (Valocchi 2013).
Participation has not only biographical consequences for activists and may
influence their career and family planning, it has also an impact on their
immediate environment - family members, friends and neighbours and
colleagues. I will now turn to some key figures in social change organisations
and what they contribute to social change organisations.

Some key figures in social change organisations

Social movement literature has put significant emphasis on the discussion of
leaders and their roles for social movements (Morris and Staggenborg 2007,
Reger 2007) and the invisible leadership of (African American) women has been
noted (Barnett 1993). Attention to key figures who perform significant tasks in
social movements supplements the existing literature on leadership. Based on

10Gender differences and (stereotypical) notions of femininity and masculinity are socially
constructed.

39
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

my research (Roth 2003, Roth 2007, Roth et al. 2014) I suggest the following
key figures which can only be analytically distinguished and in practice often
overlap: the broker, the femocrat, the knowledge producer, the consultant and
the founder, who take on various functions in social movements. This is not an
exhaustive list of key figures11, but rather these types reflect various forms of
occupational or institutional activism. Although these key figures are primarily
based on my research and reflections on feminist activists and women’s
organisations, I suggest that they play a role in a wider range of political and
social movement contexts.
A central role is played by the broker, who by virtue of participation in diverse
political contexts and organisations mediates between grassroots organisations,
local government, international non-governmental organisations and
intergovernmental organisations and who thus can provide contacts and
contributes to the diffusion of ideas (Keck and Sikkink 1998, Woodward 2003).
Through volunteer and full-time commitment, she12 has gained experience and
knowledge. The broker has created networks on which she can rely and which
she is constantly expanding. She establishes connections between activists
working in different spheres who either do not know each other or have
difficulties interacting with one another.
The femocrat (Eisenstein 1996) has - at least temporarily - decided to take on
the “march through the institutions” and is thus engaged in institutional
activism (Pettinicchio 2012). Her political socialisation might have taken place
in the autonomous women's movement, in (more left-wing) parties or trade
unions. Her office might represent the interests or provide services to women,
sexual or ethnic minorities and other disadvantaged groups. She has access to
resources, but is confronted with the accusation of de-politicisation and co-
optation when she makes compromises. Such criticism overlooks, however, that
the femocrat not only has a mediating function (between government and social
movements), but that she can also provide material resources as well as access
and legitimacy.
The knowledge producer13 is located in universities and think tanks. She seeks
to contribute to the formation of critical thinking through teaching and
research. Her analysis of social change can provide a basis for the evaluation of
social and economic policy. On the one hand, through her participation in
committees, she can critically accompany and legitimise political decisions; on
the other hand, she can make her expertise available to autonomous feminist
11Further key figures include the witness, the mentor, the pioneer, the veteran and the scapegoat
(Pettenkofer 2013), the martyr and the financier (Virchow 2013) as well as the organiser, the
strategist, the motivator and the representative (Rucht 2013).
12These key figures could be female or male. Men are also meant when I am using the female
form.
13Of course, knowledge production and learning processes are not restricted to formal
educational institutions and research institutes. On the contrary, social movements are
important sites for the production of knowledge (Choudry 2015) and learning processes (Miethe
and Roth 2016).

40
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

organisations and provide a critical outsider perspective. This type represents

occupational and academic activism.
The consultant has her own business and works with organisations in the
private, public and third sectors. She might offer equality and diversity training
or conceive and carry out events. She has created an enterprise which expresses
her political convictions. The consultant is more independent and flexible than
those who are employed by institutions, but also more precarious. As an
entrepreneur, she has to sell herself to an even greater extent than those (more)
permanently employed with regular income. In contrast to a (full-time)
university employee who can more easily afford to give a lecture or participate
in a conference without obtaining an honorarium, a self-employed consultant
carefully needs to consider her commitment to the cause, the potential
networking opportunities and the loss of income which she might risk by
participating in an event without being paid. She also represents occupational
activism.
Finally, another key figure is the founder of a movement organisation; whether
it is a grass-roots organisation, publication (for example a journal) or company.
The founder can mobilise resources of all kinds - whether unpaid labour, real
estate, financial resources, media attention or political support. Her
organisation may be engaged in protest and advocacy or provide information,
training or services and creating jobs or apprenticeships or internships.
Common to these key figures which are identified here – the broker, the
femocrat, the knowledge producer, the consultant and the founder – is that they
are constantly facing the contradictions and tensions between insider and
outsider activism, co-optation and transformation due to their border-crossing
activities (cf. Lewis 2008; Newman in 2012, especially Chapter 7). Their work is
characterised by the tension between reform and radical critique. In order to
illustrate the work of these key figures, I will now turn to a feminist
organisation, the women’s cooperative WeiberWirtschaft which was created in
the late 1980s in West-Berlin. This allows me to explore the relationship
between professionalisation and activism and the sustainability of activism at
the individual, organisational and movement levels.

The women’s cooperative WeiberWirtschaft

The emergence and development of the women’s cooperative WeiberWirtschaft
is embedded in the transformations of German, European and global women's
movements (Wichterich 2010, Ferree 2012). In the 1970s, autonomy - which
included a distancing from political parties and trade unions - played a major
role for the West German women's movement. With the creation of the Green
Party and of women's representatives and woman equality bodies in the 1980s
the integration of West German feminists in mainstream political institutions
began. This process became even more intense after German unification (1990).
The subsequently increased presence of women in politics and business and the
adoption of policies seeking to facilitate the reconciliation of work and family

41
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

life can be seen as a success of the women’s movement. However, the affinity
between (liberal) feminism and neoliberalism has been noted (Fraser 2009). In
a tricky way, the demands of women's movements for self-determination, self-
reliance, individual liberty and autonomy are compatible with the logic of
globalised markets. What does this mean? Neoliberalism involves the transfer of
tasks that were previously covered by the state, to private sector or civil society
as well as an emphasis on personal responsibility and efficiency. This meets
with feminist demands for self-determination and opens up possibilities for
women's NGOs and gender consultants. Kantola and Squires (2012)
characterise these changes as a shift from state feminism to market feminism.
While it is welcome that the expertise and services of feminists are paid
adequately, the reliance on project and performance-bound funding
encompasses the risk of co-optation and de-politicisation.
I consider the fact that the cooperative WeiberWirtschaft could be established
and that it is still active as a success and an example for sustainable activism at
the organisational level. As I will argue in this section, this success is based on a
willingness to take risks, to learn, to compromise and to put many hours of
(unpaid) work into the founding and development of this organisation. Luck
and historical circumstances contributed to the success of this initiative, but
without the ability to negotiate with a broad range of actors it would not have
been possible to take advantage of these political opportunities.
From a feminist perspective, organisations are of great interest. On the one
hand, women have for a long time been excluded from influential organisations
and from influential positions within such organisations (Acker 1990). On the
other hand, women have formed a wide variety of feminist organisations which
have contributed to social change (Martin 1990, Ferree and Martin 1995). The
majority of these organisations are cultural or political, as a primarily economic
organisation or enterprise the women’s cooperative WeiberWirtschaft is an
unusual feminist organisation.
This women’s cooperative represents a real utopia in the sense that it is guided
by the moral principles of equality, democracy and sustainability (Wright 2013).
The organisational structure of the cooperative and the low share price (€ 103)
ensure equality and democracy to a much greater extent than other business
enterprises. Men can buy shares, but can only be involved in a limited form due
to the organisation’s commitment to promote women. The cooperative
represents three models of intersectional feminist practices distinguished by
Naples (2013): local democratic practices, cooperation between state and
community, as well as democratic practices in the transnational context. What
factors and paradoxes contributed to the success of WeiberWirtschaft and how
does this project reflect and inspire feminist transformations? In this section, I
will first discuss the data on which this case study is based. Then I will provide a
short history of the women’s cooperative before I turn to the role of the key
figures of social change organisations that were introduced earlier.

42
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Data
This account is grounded in personal and activist knowledge (Choudry 2015)
rather than on a systematic academic research project. My discussion of this
organisation is primarily based on reflections by the founders and other
members of the cooperative which were published in a book celebrating the
25th anniversary of WeiberWirtschaft (Neusüß and von der Bey 2015). The
book documents the difficulties and conflicts that the organisation encountered
as well as the success which even surprised the founders themselves. Thus, the
data on which I draw was created by the organisation itself. As a (close) friend
and colleague of some of the founders, I knew about the project from the earliest
discussions in the second half of the 1980s and became one of the members of
the cooperative. Thus my knowledge of the organisations is embedded in my
everyday life and biography. However, I don’t consider myself an activist in the
organisation. My involvement was restricted to listening to the accounts of my
friends about the difficulties and successes they experienced, occasionally
attending events, supporting the organisation financially14 and offering
reflections from my perspective as scholar of feminist organisations in the
afterword of the book. Thus my account is partial and might be perceived as
sympathetic and biased. I certainly hope that this account will be supplemented
by studies that employ interviews with founders, former and current renters and
executive board members.

A short herstory of Weiberwirtschaft15

The idea of WeiberWirtschaft is grounded in feminist scholarship and the
women’s movement. In 1985, three of the founders of WeiberWirtschaft
published a report on the obstacles to women’s self-employment based on a
study funded by local government, the West-Berlin senator for economy and
employment, in which they outlined the idea of a women’s founders centre. This
idea was further developed during a women’s movement event - the first
women’s work conference in West-Berlin in 1987 - and a voluntary association
was founded in the same year. As a result of these debates, the idea of creating a
women’s founder centre to help women overcome the obstacles of founding
businesses such as lack of affordable offices or missing day care facilities
emerged.
Between 1987 and 1989, in preparation for the founding of a cooperative, the
founders established a voluntary association, opened an office and obtained
public funding for paid positions for project management and public relations.

14In addition to buying shares for myself, I gave shares to my niece and mother – representing
three generations of supporters of a feminist organisation.
15This account is based on the information provided on the website of WeiberWirtschaft
[Link]
Seiten_englisch_2014.pdf and on Neusuess and von der Bey (2105). Details are provided in
order to show what obstacles the organisation faced and what role the key figures which I
introduced earlier played in dealing with them.

43
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

The cooperative was founded in 1989, moved into an office in 1990 and
obtained funding for two staff positions from the senator for women in the local
government. In 1992, the cooperation was included in the register of
cooperatives and bought a building complex which was renovated between 1993
and 1996. In 1994, the refurbishment of a part of the building complex was
completed and the first tenants moved in. Two years later, in 1996, the entire
complex, including social housing (13 apartments) was available for use.
In 1998, the cooperative experienced a significant crisis when 40% of the
building complex was affected by contamination. Ironically, this was a result of
the ecological renovation of the building (heating, airtight windows, the removal
of tiles from the walls) which within three years after completion of the
renovation had allowed naphtalene, which was part of the roofing cardboard in
the suspended ceiling, to diffuse into the air (Smentek 2015, p. 75). The
contamination had to be removed and new spaces for the renters whose office
spaces had become unusable had to be found. These measures put significant
financial pressure on the organisation which had to raise additional funds in
order to keep the building. The refurbishment was completed in 2000 and in
order to deal with the conflicts between the executive board and the renters a
mediation unit was established.
In 2000, 80 per cent of the units were occupied; as of 2012 100 per cent of the
offices were rented to businesses and other interested renters joined the waiting
list. In order to support women founders a number of services were introduced:
cheaper rents for founders during the first year, access to a day care centre on
site, affordable meals in the restaurant on site and micro-credits for members of
the cooperative. Over the years, the cooperative won a number of awards
recognizing it as an ecological, family-friendly, innovative enterprise. In the next
section, I will address what makes this enterprise a feminist organisation and
why the involvement in the organisation should be considered feminist
activism.

WeiberWirtschaft as a feminist organisation

According to Patricia Yancey Martin (1990) an organisation is feminist if it
meets the following criteria: “a) it has a feminist ideology, b) has feminist
guiding values, c) has feminist goals, d) produces feminist outcomes, e) was
founded during the women’s movement or as part of the women’s movement”
(p. 116). These criteria16 apply to WeiberWirtschaft, as I will illustrate based on
the recollections of the founders and members of the cooperative.

Feminist ideology
The idea of the cooperative emerged based on an analysis of the obstacles to
women’s self-employment. The findings of the study indicated that women

16 As mentioned above, WeiberWirtschaft was founded in the context of the women’s movement.

44
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

found smaller enterprises and usually on their own, they have often a family
that they are caring for and they have less access to public funding. These
obstacles could be overcome by creating a centre for women entrepreneurs
where small enterprises can share infrastructure and participate in training.
This infrastructure should enable women to create their own workplaces and
“move away from the victim role” (Hübner 2015: 38). Founders deliberated
about the legal form of the organisation. They considered private property as an
expression of existing patriarchal power relations and rejected the idea to
become a “capitalist”. The idea was to put property into women’s hands and to
redistribute the profit gained through renting out the property by making it
available to the women’s movement (von der Bey 2015: 15). Thus the founders
developed the idea of a women’s cooperative to start a feminist money cycle:
Many women contribute small amounts of money, to 1) buy a large property,
create space for women’s enterprises and women’s projects which 2) provide
employment opportunities for women, 3) make the economic contribution of
women visible and 4) make profit that will be used to support women’s projects
(von der Bey 2015: 15).

Feminist guiding values

In order to put this idea into practice, a significant amount of money had to be
raised. Even though the cooperative successfully pooled money through selling
shares to women (and later on also to men), the shareholders equity (about €
250,000 in March 1993) was not nearly sufficient to buy and renovate a large
building complex. The cooperative thus had to consider what compromises to
make to raise the necessary capital (approximately € 6 million) to buy the
building. In line with their values, the founders hoped to get a mortgage with
ideologically compatible banks such as the Ökobank (ecological bank) or the
Bank für Sozialwirtschaft (Bank for social economy). However, these banks
could only offer credit up to € 500,000. The founders then looked for a bank
that was led by a woman, but the only woman in Berlin who led a branch of a
bank could only make credit decisions up to € 500,000. Not only was it difficult
for WeiberWirtschaft to find a bank that met their values, mainstream banks
were not keen to give a small group of women, mostly social scientists with lack
of management experience and hardly any equity, a very large sum of money.
Moreover, the banks were afraid that supporting feminists from the women’s
project movement would spoil their reputation (Gather 2015: 46). In the end, a
partially publicly owned bank specializing in mortgages provided the credit
needed to buy the property (Gather 2015). Just as the legal form of the
organisation was informed by feminist values, they also shaped the process of
finding the necessary resources. At the same time, financing the project
required compromises, a point I will return to below.

45
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Feminist goals and outcomes

The aim of WeiberWirtschaft is to enable women to create their own businesses,
but that does not make it a liberal feminist organisation. First, as a cooperative
the organisation spreads participation and decision making throughout the
shareholders. Second, with lower rents for new entrepreneurs the organisation
engages in redistribution. Third, the founders actively sought financial support
from local government. Furthermore, the organisation considered sustainability
and the reconciliation of paid work and care work through establishing a day
care centre. At the time of writing this article, WeiberWirtschaft is still repaying
its loans. Once this is achieved, it remains to be seen whether WeiberWirtschaft
will be able to return to its origins and realise the feminist money cycle making
earned surplus available to feminist projects, single mothers, and to people and
businesses in the Global South. Thus, WeiberWirtschaft represents an
alternative to neoliberal practices, by contributing to the redistribution of
resources.

Crises and conflicts – and how to deal with them

Of course, the herstory of this feminist organisation was not free of crises and
conflicts. The question of how renters should be involved in the decision making
processes became particularly salient in the crisis situation when part of the
building were found to be contaminated by naphtalene. Renters voiced the
suspicions that they had been misled and that the problem had been known to
the executive board when the property was purchased (Smentek 2015: 78). The
members of the executive board who had put years of unpaid labour in
establishing the founders’ centre were hurt and outraged (ibid). The conflict was
even covered in the local press. General assemblies as well as renters’
assemblies were held, some women left the cooperative. In response to the
conflict, a mediation unit was founded in order to solve conflicts between the
executive board and the renters (Smentek 2015: 78).
Another conflict concerned rent arrears. The cooperative could not afford to
relinquish income through rents and had to figure out how to deal with renters
whose businesses were not successful. Some renters envisioned the cooperative
as a “big nurturing mother” (Zauner 2015: 66) and experienced the fact that the
executive board suggested restructuring if rents were not paid after repeated
extensions as a lack of solidarity. The executive board reflected on whether they
were “adopting male behaviour from the evil economy” and had become
“normal landlords” (ibid), but concluded that they had to take a clear stance in
order to assure the success of the enterprise. Moreover, they recalled that
(some) renters were grateful to be confronted with a “reality check” instead of
further investing in an unsuccessful endeavour (ibid).
The collection includes an article which is based on a conversation between the
editors and five renters who moved into the building complex between 1994 and
2008, according to which conflicts played a bigger role in the early stages of the
cooperative and declined after the building work was completed (Mieterinnen

46
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

im Gründerinnenzentrum 2015). Renters (all of them are shareholders of the

cooperative) are involved in the decision what enterprises can move in thus can
prevent competitions. Some of the renters take advantage of the networking and
exchange opportunities that the proximity to other enterprises offers.
Thus, WeiberWirtschaft had to overcome various obstacles and conflicts in
order to realise the dream of a “real utopia” (Wright 2013). I consider the
women’s cooperative as “prefigurative politics” (Yates 2015) because it
successfully created workplaces for women in an ecological, family-friendly,
democratic feminist enterprise. Paradoxically, the creation of workplaces for
women was accomplished through a great amount of unpaid, voluntary work.17
In the next section, I return to the relationship between professionalisation,
professionalism and activism and to the key figures of social movements that I
identified earlier.

Professionalisation, pragmatism and principles

How was it possible that a small group of students, unemployed women and
recent post-graduates with no equity and little prior knowledge of property
development were able to buy and refurbish a large property and establish a
cooperative and women founders’ centre of international reputation? Each of
the key figures I introduced earlier played a different role in this process.
Obviously, the women are founders since they established a new organisation.
Thus, let’s start with the knowledge producer. The starting point of the project
was the insight – findings from a study on women’s employment opportunities
– what obstacles women who want to establish businesses face. The founders
thus were academic activists addressing the problem by coming up with a
solution, a women’s founder centre. Throughout the phases of creating the
cooperative and founders centre a lot of knowledge and expertise was needed:
legal, financial, architectural, planning and business expertise. In addition, the
cooperative had to learn how to deal with conflicts within the organisation. The
necessary expertise to establish the project was acquired in different ways – to a
large extent through learning processes of the founding members and those who
joined later on. However, activists also benefited from expertise sponsorship,
for example, a well-known female architect supported the project through
providing her expertise pro bono. In addition, the cooperative paid for legal
assistance.
Closely related to the ability to mobilise resources is the fact that the women
engaged in WeiberWirtschaft were capable brokers able to create alliances
across multiple sectors. On the one hand, as a women’s project
WeiberWirtschaft could mobilise the support of women identifying with and
active in the women’s movement who bought shares throughout the herstory of
the organisation. Given that it is unclear whether it will ever be possible to pay

17The founders estimate that in the 1990s alone the unpaid labour put into creating the
cooperative was worth the equivalent of about € 2.5 million (von der Bey 2015: 19).

47
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

out the shares – and that the idea is to invest potential profits into women’s
projects – in this case share ownership means investment in the women’s
movement, not in individual profit. During the crisis that required the
refurbishment, the cooperative had to raise money in a short period of time. The
organisation put together a campaign involving events, panel discussions, press
conferences and marketing actions and successfully sold 2000 shares,
increasing equity by 30%. On the other hand, the founders had to convince
banks and local government that the project is efficient. Thus the organisation
successfully communicated both with the women’s movement as well as with
economic and political leaders and the general public. Femocrats in the local
government played an important role supporting the project. The cooperative
offers office space for consultants which use the networking opportunities on
site.

Professionalisation and activism – professional activists

So could every activity be activism? Yes and no. This depends very much on the
context and the social movement as well as the stage of the life course of an
activist. For example, digital activism, that is supporting a social movement,
social change organisation or campaign through online action (Van Laer and
Van Aelst 2010) can be prefigurative and recruit participants in offline protest
events (Mercea 2012) or it can contribute to movement retention (Bunnage
2014). Thus, rather than equating activism with radical or direct action, it is
important to differentiate between different forms of activism and appreciate
that they suit different demands – demands of movements and social change
organisations, but also demands of the individuals active in them. In addition, it
is important to acknowledge that radical activism can have system-stabilizing
effects (Blühdorn 2006), while occupational and academic activism can have
significant negative career consequences and may include harassment and
intimidation (Taylor and Raeburn 1995). Thus, high-risk activism is not limited
to direct action, but can also include occupational and academic activism.
Whether an activity qualifies as activism thus depends on a variety of factors,
including the identity of activists, goals and outcomes.
Shifting between different forms of activism over the life-course can sustain
activism at the individual, organisational and movement level. Activists gain
experience in paid and unpaid work which can be transferred from one sphere
of activism to another. This includes learning processes as well as spillover
effects (Meyer and Whittier 1994). Such shifts are also important to address or
prevent burnout. For example, a gay rights activist who had been involved in
direct action and advocacy work demanding support for communities affected

48
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

by HIV and AIDS might open a gay friendly health clinic, thus providing a
service for one of the affected communities while making a living.
Furthermore, academic activism can play a particular role in sustaining
activism.18 It can offer long-term activists paid employment that allows to
continue working with social movements and activist communities as well as
socializing new generations of activists while at the same time earning money
that allows sustaining a family. It also offers spaces for activists who return to
university for courses or a degree which provide a space for reflection, learning
and networking (Kyle et al. 2011, Roth 2015a). Thus the academy can support
and sustain as well as legitimise and professionalise activism (Kyle et al. 2011).
Does this mean that professionalisation of activists and activism is
unproblematic? No. Just like any form of activism, professional and
professionalised activism requires ongoing critical reflection on strategies,
goals, practices and compromises. No matter how good the intentions, social
movements are not free from contradictions as accounts of racism, sexism or
homophobia in progressive movements demonstrate. Moreover,
demonstrations can be important means to express outrage and oppositions,
but they can also become ritualistic (Rucht 2003). Fair trade is aimed at
improving the lives of farmers, but can be and is incorporated into capitalism
(Brown 2013, Dauvergne and LeBaron 2014, Busa and King 2015). Canvassing
is an efficient means of gaining large numbers of signatures for progressive
causes but undermines meaningful participation and fails to build grassroots
capacity in local communities (Fisher 2006). Gaining access to local and
national governments and intergovernmental organisations can distance NGOs
from the constituencies they are representing (Lang 2013, Carroll and Sapinski
2015). Sustainable activism – no matter in what form it comes – requires
accountability to values and to constituencies and contribute to empowerment
(Kilby 2006).

Conclusions
Sustainable activism requires both elasticity and rigor, the ability to learn and
compromise as well as the willingness to stick to values and convictions. As I
have argued in this article, participation in social movements should not be
thought as separate from but as integrated in everyday life and the life course.
Everyday experiences - for example, discrimination, inequality and injustice -
can be the cause to become active in different ways to fight for one’s own
interests or for future generations. This commitment in turn can serve as a
model for others. If we understand activism as embedded in everyday life, then
we find key figures as role models and mentors in parents, teachers, students
and colleagues. Political beliefs may be reflected in educational methods, the
choice of schools, transportation, consumer products and jobs. These decisions,

18 Of course, in the neoliberal and managerial university, the spaces for academic activism are
increasingly difficult to create and to defend (Crowther & Scandrett 2016).

49
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

in turn, can affect children, partners, neighbours and colleagues. Thus I argue
for a sophisticated understanding of commitment that does not reduce activism
to the participation in protest events, but takes into account a wide range of
more or less collective action. This does not mean that the importance of protest
events should be questioned but that these should be more strongly related to
other forms of activism as it is currently the case in the study of social
movements. This also means perceiving the cross-border work of insider and
outsider activists: mediator, femocrat, knowledge producer, consultant and
founder represent different key figures who mediate between civil society,
public sector and market as I have shown in my case-study of the women’s
cooperative WeiberWirtschaft. Key figures in social movements are active at
local, national and international levels, as volunteers and paid staff. A focus on
sporadic protest behaviour or a particular variant of movement participation
(either insider or outsider, protest or participation in a movement organisation)
does not address these life projects. A biographical perspective, however, allows
to take the sequence of participation in various social movements and forms of
activity in the view and to recognise the extent to which these experiences of
multiple participation influence the development of networks and social
movements and contribute to the sustainability of activism at the individual,
organisational and movement levels.

References
Acker, Joan. 1990. "Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: A Theory of Gendered
Organizations." Gender & Society 4(2): 139-158.
Andreassen, Tone Alm, Eric Breit and Sveignung Legard. 2014. "The making of
‘professional amateurs’: Professionalizing the voluntary work of service user
representatives." Acta Sociologica 57(4): 325-340.
Askins, Kye. 2009. "‘That's just what I do’: Placing emotion in academic
activism." Emotion, Space and Society 2(1): 4-13.
Averett, Kate Henley. 2016. "The Gender Buffet: LGBTQ Parents Resisting
Heteronormativity." Gender & Society 30(2): 189-212.
Balsiger, Philip. 2010. "Making Political Consumers: The Tactical Action
Repertoire of a Campaign for Clean Clothes." Social Movement Studies 9(3):
311-329.
Barnett, Bernice McNair. 1993. "Invisible Southern Black Women Leaders in the
Civil Rights Movement. The Triple Constraints of Gender, Race, and Class."
Gender & Society 7: 162-182.
Barnett, Michael. 2011. Empire of Humanity. A History of Humanitarianism.
Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Bell, Shannon Elizabeth and Yvonne A. Braun. 2010. “Coal, Identity, and the
Gendering of Environmental Justice Activism in Central Appalachia.” Gender &
Society 24(6): 794-813.

50
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Blühdorn, Ingolfur. 2006. "Self-Experience in the Theme Park of Radical

Action? Social Movements and Political Articulation in the Late-Modern
Condition." European Journal of Social Theory 9(1): 23-42.
Bobel, Chris. 2007. "‘I'm not an activist, though I've done a lot of it’: Doing
Activism, Being Activist and the ‘Perfect Standard’ in a Contemporary
Movement." Social Movement Studies: Journal of Social, Cultural and Political
Protest 6(2): 147 - 159.
Brown, Gavin and Jenny Pickerill. 2009. "Space for emotion in the spaces of
activism." Emotion, Space and Society 2(1): 24-35.
Brown, Keith R. 2013. Buying Into Fair Trade. Culture, Morality and
Consumption. New York: NYU Press.
Bunnage, Leslie A. 2014. "Social Movement Engagement over the Long Haul:
Understanding Activist Retention." Sociology Compass 8(4): 433-445.
Busa, Julianne and Leslie King. 2015. "Corporate takeover? Ideological
heterogeneity, individualization, and materiality in the corporatization of three
environment-related movements." Journal of Environmental Studies and
Sciences 5 (3): 251-261.
Carroll, William K. and Jean Philippe Sapinski. 2015. "Transnational
Alternative Policy Groups in Global Civil Society: Enablers of Post-Capitalist
Alternatives or Carriers of NGOization?" Critical Sociology, DOI:
10.1177/0896920515589004
Choudry, Aziz. 2015. Learning Activism. The Intellectual Life of Contemporary
Social Movements. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Corrigall-Brown, Catherine. 2012. Patterns of Protest. Trajectories of
Participation in Social Movements. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Cortese, Daniel K. 2015. "I'm a "good" activist you're a "bad" activist, and
everything I do is activism: parsing the different types of "activist" identities in
LGBTQ organizing." Interface 7(1): 215-246.
Cox, Laurence. 2009. "“Hearts with one purpose alone”? Thinking personal
sustainability in social movements." Emotion, Space and Society 2(1): 52-61.
Cox, Laurence. 2010. "How do we keep going? Activist burnout and personal
sustainability in social movements?" Fourteenth international conference on
alternative futures and popular protest. Manchester Metropolitan University.
Crowther, Jim and Eurig Scandrett. 2016. "Remaking politics and education:
The rejection of austerity politics and radical intellectual work in higher
education " Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 29(4): FSJB-plus
[Link]
Dauvergne, Peter and Genevieve LeBaron. 2014. Protest, Inc. The
Corporatization of Activism. Cambridge: Polity.

51
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Downton, James and Paul Wehr. 1998. "Persistent Pacifism: How Activist
Commitment is Developed and Sustained." Journal of Peace Research 35(5):
531-550.
Edwards, Bob and John D. McCarthy. 2007. "Resources and Social Movement
Mobilization." Pp. 116-152 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements,
ed. by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi. Oxford: Blackwell.
Eikhof, Doris Ruth, Chris Warhurst and Axel Haunschild 2007. "Introduction:
What work? What Life? What balance? Critical reflections on the work-life
balance debate." Employee Relations 29(4): 325-333.
Eisenstein, Hester. 1996. Inside Agitators. Australian Femocrats and the State.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Eliasoph, Nina. 2013. The politics of volunteering. Cambridge: Polity.
Eltanani, Mor Kandlik. 2016. "But it Comes with a Price": Employment in
Social Movement Organizations. PhD, University of Edinburgh.
Emejulu, Akewugo and Leah Bassel. 2015. "Minority women, austerity and
activism." Race & Class 57(2): 86-95.
Faludi, Susan. 2013. “Death of a Revolutionary. Shulamith Firestone's radical
feminism”. The New Yorker. New York, Conde Nast.
Fast, Larissa. 2014. Aid in Danger. The Promises and Perils of
Humanitarianism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Fechter, Anne-Meike. 2012. "The Personal and the Professional: Aid workers'
relationships and values in the development process." Third World Quarterly
33(8): 1387-1404.
Ferree, Myra Marx. 2012. Varieties of Feminism: German Gender Politics in
Global Perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Ferree, Myra Marx and Patricia Yancey Martin. Eds. 1995. Feminist
Organizations. Harvest of the New Women's Movement. Philadelphia: Temple
University Press.
Fillieule, Olivier. 2015. Demobilization and Disengagement in a Life Course
Perspective. Pp. 277-288, in The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements, edited
by Donatella della Porta and Mario Diani. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Fisher, Dana R. 2006. Activism, Inc. How the Outsourcing of Grassroots
Campaigns is Strangling Progressive Politics in America. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Frantz, Christiane. 2005. Karriere in NGOs. Politik als Beruf jenseits der
Parteien. Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Fraser, Nancy. 2009. "Feminism, Capitalism and the Cunning of History." New
Left Review 56(March-April): 97-117.

52
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Fuentes, Emma. 2013. “Political Mothering: Latina and African American

Mothers in the Struggle for Educational Justice”. Anthropology & Education
44(3): 304-319.
Ganesh, Shiv and Kirstie McAllum. 2012. "Volunteering and
Professionalization: Trends in Tension?" Management Communication
Quarterly 26(1): 152-158.
Gather, Claudia. 2015. "‘Es ist nicht zu schaffen, wir machen es trotzdem!‘
Bemerkungen zum Kauf und zur Finanzierung der Gewerbeimmobilie." Pp. 41-
47 in Unsere Luftschlösser haben U-Bahn-Anschluss. WeiberWirtschaft - eine
Erfolgsgeschichte, ed. by Claudia Neusüß and Katja von der Bey. Berlin:
WeiberWirtschaft.
Glasius, Marlies and Armine Ishkanian. 2014. "Surreptitious Symbiosis:
Engagement Between Activists and NGOs." VOLUNTAS: International Journal
of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 26(6): 2620-2644.
Gleeson, Jessamy. 2016. "‘(Not) working 9–5’: the consequences of
contemporary Australian-based online feminist campaigns as digital labour."
Media International Australia. DOI: 10.1171/1329878x16664999
Gorski, Paul C. 2015. "Relieving burnout and the “Martyr Syndrome” among
social justice education activists: the implications and effects of mindfulness."
The Urban Review 47(4): 696-716.
Gorski, Paul C. and Cher Chen. 2015. "“Frayed All Over:” The Causes and
Consequences of Activist Burnout Among Social Justice Education Activists."
Educational Studies 51(5): 385-405.
Haenfler, Ross, Brett Johnson and Ellis Jones. 2012. "Lifestyle Movements:
Exploring the Intersection of Lifestyle and Social Movements." Social
Movement Studies 11(1): 1-20.
Harrison, Elizabeth. 2013. "Beyond the looking glass? ‘Aidland’ reconsidered."
Critique of Anthropology 33(3): 263-279.
Hensby, Alexander, Joanne Sibthorpe and Stephen Driver. 2012. "Resisting the
‘protest business’: bureaucracy, post-bureaucracy and active membership in
social movement organizations." Organization 19(6): 809-823.
Hopgood, Stephen. 2006. Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty
International. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hübner, Sabine. 2015. "Selbstironisch und mit Vergnügen pragmatisch". Pp. 38-
40 in Unsere Luftschlösser haben U-Bahn-Anschluss. WeiberWirtschaft - eine
Erfolgsgeschichte, ed. by Claudia Neusüß and Katja von der Bey. Berlin:
WeiberWirtschaft.
Kantola, Johanna and Judith Squires. 2012. "From state feminism to market
feminism?" International Political Science Review 33(4): 382-400.
Keck, Margaret E. and Kathryn Sikkink. 1998. Activists Beyond Borders.
Advocacy Networks in International Politics. Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

53
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Kilby, Patrick. 2006. "Accountability for Empowerment: Dilemmas Facing Non-

Governmental Organizations." World Development 34(6): 951-963.
Kirton, Gill and Geraldine Healy. 2013. "Commitment and collective identity of
long-term union participation: the case of women union leaders in the UK and
USA." Work, Employment & Society 27(2): 195-212.
Klandermans, Bert. 2007. "The Demand and Supply of Participation: Social-
Psychological Correlates of Participation in Social Movements. Pp. 360-379 in
The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements edited by David A. Snow, Sarah
A. Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Kleinman, Sherryl. 1996. Opposing Ambitions. Gender and Identity in an
Alternative Organisation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kyle, Richard G., Christine Milligan, Robin A. Kearns, Wendy Larner, Nicholas
R. Fyfe and Liz Bondi. 2011. "The Tertiary Turn: Locating “The Academy” in
Autobiographical Accounts of Activism in Manchester, UK and Auckland,
Aotearoa New Zealand." Antipode 43(4): 1181-1214.
Lang, Sabine. 2013. NGOs, Civil Society and the Public Sphere. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Lavalette, Michael. 2011. Radical social work today: Social work at the
crossroads. Bristol: Policy Press.
Lewis, David. 2008. "Using Life Histories in Social Policy Research: The Case of
Third Sector/Public Sector Boundary Crossing." Journal of Social Policy
37(04): 559-578.
Martens, Kerstin. 2006. "Professionalised representation of human rights NGOs
to the United Nations." The International Journal of Human Rights 10(1): 19 -
30.
Martin, Patricia Yancey. 1990. "Rethinking Feminist Organizations." Gender
and Society 4(2): 182-206.
Maslach, Christina and Mary E. Gomes. 2006. "Overcoming burnout." Pp. 43-
49 in Working for peace: A handbook of practical psychology and other tools,
edited by Rachel M MacNair. Atascadero: Impact Publishers.
McAdam, Doug. 1986. "Recruitment to high risk activism." American Journal
of Sociology 92: 64-90.
McAdam, Doug. 1989. "The Biographical Consequences of Activism." American
Sociological Review 54(5): 744-760.
McCarthy, John D. and Mayer N. Zald. 1977. "Resource Mobilization and Social
Movements: A Partial Theory." American Journal of Sociology 82(6): 1212-
1241.
McDonald, Katrina Bell. 1997. “Black Activist Mothering. A Historical
Intersection of Race, Gender, and Class”. Gender & Society, 11 (6): 773-795.

54
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Mercea, Dan. 2012. "Digital prefigurative participation: The entwinement of

online communication and offline participation in protest events." New Media
& Society 14(1): 153-169.
Meyer, David S. and Nancy Whittier. 1994. "Social Movement Spillover." Social
Problems(2): 277.
Mieterinnen im Gründungszentrum 2015. "Es ist ein Kreislauf - du steckst rein
und es kommt tausendfach zurück". Pp. 63-65 in Unsere Luftschlösser haben
U-Bahn-Anschluss. WeiberWirtschaft - eine Erfolgsgeschichte, ed. by Claudia
Neusüß and Katja von der Bey. Berlin: WeiberWirtschaft.
Miethe, Ingrid. 1999. Frauen in der DDR-Opposition. Lebens- und
kollektivgeschichtliche Verläufe in einer Frauenfriedensgruppe. Opladen:
Leske + Budrich.
Miethe, Ingrid and Silke Roth. 2016. "Bildung und Soziale Bewegungen - eine
konzeptionelle Einführung." Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 29(4):20-
29. [Link]
Morris, A. D. and S. Staggenborg. 2007. "Leadership in Social Movements", Pp.
171-196 in The Blackwell Companion to Social Movements edited by David A.
Snow, Sarah A. Soule and Hanspeter Kriesi. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Naples, Nancy. Ed. 1998. Community Activism and Feminist Politics.
Organizing Across Race, Class, and Gender. New York: Routledge.
Naples, Nancy A. 2013. "Sustaining Democracy: Localization, Globalization, and
Feminist Praxis". Sociological Forum 28(4): 657-681.
Neilson, Lisa A. 2010. "Boycott or buycott? Understanding political
consumerism." Journal of Consumer Behaviour 9(3): 214-227.
Nepstad, Sharon Erikson and Christian S. Smith. 1999. "Rethinking
Recruitment to High-Risk Activism: The Case of Nicaragua Exchange."
Mobilization 4: 40-51.
Neusüß, Claudia and Katja von der Bey, Eds. 2015. Unsere Luftschlösser haben
U-Bahn-Anschluss. WeiberWirtschaft - eine Erfolgsgeschichte. Berlin:
WeiberWirtschaft.
Newman, Janet. 2012. Working the Spaces of Power. Activism, Neoliberalism
and Gendered Labour. London, Bloomsbury Academic.
Passy, Florence and Marco Giugni. 2000. "Life-Spheres, Networks, and
Sustained Participation in Social Movements: A Phenomenological Approach to
Political Commitment." Sociological Forum 15(1): 117-144.
Pettenkofer, Andreas. 2013. "Die Zeugin und der Sündenbock. Zur informellen
Ordnung sozialer Bewegungen." Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 26(4):
24-31.
Pettinicchio, David. 2012. "Institutional Activism: Reconsidering the
Insider/Outsider Dichotomy." Sociology Compass 6(6): 499-510.

55
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Reger, Jo. 2007. "New Dimensions in the Study of Social Movement

Leadership." American Behavioral Scientist 50(10): 1303-1305.
Roberts, K. 2007. "Work-life balance - the sources of the contemporary problem
and the probable outcomes. A review and interpretation of the evidence."
Employee Relations 29(4): 334-351.
Rodgers, Kathleen. 2010. "'Anger is Why We're All Here': Mobilizing and
Managing Emotions in a Professional Activist Organization." Social Movement
Studies 9(3): 273-291.
Roth, Silke. 2000. "Developing Working-Class Feminism: A Biographical
Approach to Social Movement Participation." Pp. 300-323 in Self, Identity and
Social Movements. Sheldon Stryker, Timothy J. Owens and Robert W. White.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Roth, Silke. 2003. Building Movement Bridges. The Coalition of Labour Union
Women. Greenwood, CT, Praeger.
Roth, Silke. 2007. "Sisterhood and Solidarity? Women's Organizations in the
Expanded European Union." Social Politics 14(4): 460-487.
Roth, Silke. 2015a. Paradoxes of Aid Work. Passionate Professionals.
London/New York, Routledge. Roth, Silke. 2015b. "Aid work as edgework –
voluntary risk-taking and security in humanitarian assistance, development and
human rights work." Journal of Risk Research 18(2): 139-155.
Roth, Silke, Clare Saunders and Cristiana Olcese. 2014. "Occupy as a Free Space
- Mobilization Processes and Outcomes." Sociological Research Online 19(1)
[Link]
Rothschild-Whitt, Joyce. 1979. "The Collectivist Organization: An Alternative to
Rational-Bureaucratic Models." American Sociological Review 44(4): 509-527.
Rucht, Dieter. Ed. 2003. Berlin, 1. Mai 2002. Politische Demonstrationsrituale.
Opladen: Leske+[Link], Dieter. 2013. "Schlüsselfiguren statt Führer:
Zur (Selbst-)Steuerung sozialer Bewegungen." Forschungsjournal Soziale
Bewegungen 26(4): 32-43.
Ryan, Sara and Katherine Runswick Cole. 2009. “From Advocate to Activist?
Mapping the Experiences of Mothers of Children on the Autism Spectrum”.
Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities 22:43-53.
Shah, Bindi V. 2011. Laotian Daughters. Working toward Community,
Belonging and Environmental Justice. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Sisk, Susan M. and L. G. Duncan. 2006. "Parenting in the Peaceful Home.
Working for Peace". Pp. 55-62 in A Handbook of Practical Psychology and Other
Tool, edited by Rachel M. MacNair. Atascadero: Impact Publishers
Smentek, Sabine. 2015. "Das WeiberWirtschafts-Wunder" - Altlastensanierung
1999. Pp. 75-79 in Unsere Luftschlösser haben U-Bahn-Anschluss.
WeiberWirtschaft - eine Erfolgsgeschichte, edited by Claudia Neusüß and Katja
von der Bey. Berlin: WeiberWirtschaft.

56
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Sommers-Flanagan, Rita and John Sommers-Flanagan. 2006. "Parenting for

Peace. Working for Peace". Pp. 220-229 in A Handbook of Practical Psychology
and Other Tools, edited by Rachel M. MacNair. Atascadero: Impact Publishers
Spalter-Roth, Roberta and Ronee Schreiber. 1995. "Outsider Issues and Insider
Tactics. Strategic Tensions in the Women's Policy Network in the 1980s". Pp
105-127 in Feminist Organisations. Harvest of the New Women's Movement,
edited by Myra Marx Ferree and Patricia Yancey Martin. Philadelphia: Temple.
Staggenborg, Suzanne. 1988. "The Consequences of Professionalisation and
Formalisation in the Pro-Choice Movement" American Sociological Review
53(4): 585-605.
Tarrow, Sidney. 1998. Power in Movement. Social Movements and Contentious
Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Taylor, Rebecca. 2004. “Extending Conceptual Boundaries: Work, Voluntary
Work and Employment.” Work, Employment and Society 18 (1): 29-49.
Taylor, Verta and Nicole C. Raeburn. 1995. "Identity Politics as High Risk
Activism: Career Consequences for Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Sociologists."
Social Problems 42: 252-273
Taylor, Verta and Nella Van Dyke. 2007. "“Get up, Stand up”: Tactical
Repertoires of Social Movements". Pp. 262-293 in The Blackwell Companion to
Social Movements, edited by David A. Snow, Sarah A. Soule and Hanspeter
Kriesi. Oxford: Blackwell.

Turbett, Colin. 2014. Doing radical social work. Basingstoke: Palgrave

Macmillan.
Van Laer, Jeroen and Peter Van Aelst. 2010. "Internet and Social Movement
Repertoires." Information, Communication & Society 13(8): 1146-1171.
Virchow, Fabian. 2013. "Führer und Schlüsselfiguren in extrem rechten
Bewegungen." Forschungsjournal Soziale Bewegungen 26(4): 52-58.
Visser, Miranda, Melinda Mills, Liesbet Heyse, Rafael Wittek and Vincenzo
Bollettino. 2016. "Work–Life Balance among Humanitarian Aid Workers."
Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. DOI: 1177/0899764016634890
Von der Bey, Katja. 2015. "Bloss nicht bescheiden werden!" Pp. 13-25 in Unsere
Luftschlösser haben U-Bahn-Anschluss. WeiberWirtschaft - eine

57
Interface: a journal for and about social movements Article
Volume 8 (2): 29 - 58 (November 2016) Roth, Professionalisation and precariousness

Erfolgsgeschichte, ed. by Claudia Neusüß and Katja von der Bey. Berlin:
WeiberWirtschaft.
Watkins, Susan Cotts, Ann Swidler and Thomas Hannan. 2012. "Outsourcing
Social Transformation: Development NGOs as Organizations." Annual Review
of Sociology 38(1): 285-315.
Wichterich, Christa. 2010. "Geschlechteranalysen and -diskurse in der Krise."
Peripherie 30(118/119): 164-187.
Woodward, Alison E. 2003. "Building velvet triangles: gender and informal
governance." Pp. 76-93 in Informal Governance in the European Union, edited
by Thomas Christiansen and Simona. Piattoni. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Wright, Erik. O. 2013. "Transforming Capitalism through Real Utopias."
American Sociological Review 78(1): 1-25.
Yates, Luke. 2015. "Everyday politics, social practices and movement networks:
daily life in Barcelona's social centres." The British Journal of Sociology 66(2):
236-258.
Zauner, Margrit. 2015. "Vielfalt an der Nahtstelle von Politik und Ökonomie".
Margrit Zauner im Gespräch. Pp. 65-67 in Unsere Luftschlösser haben U-Bahn-
Anschluss. WeiberWirtschaft - eine Erfolgsgeschichte, ed. by Claudia Neusüß
and Katja von der Bey. Berlin: WeiberWirtschaft

About the author

Dr Silke Roth is Associate Professor of Sociology in the Department of
Sociology, Social Policy and Criminology at the University of Southampton
(UK). She is interested in meaningful work and engagement for social justice.
Her areas of research include the participation in and the impact of voluntary
organisations, social movements and non-governmental organisations. In order
to understand the intersection of individual and social change she finds
biographical methods particularly useful for connecting micro-, meso-, and
macro-levels of analysis. Contact email [Link] AT [Link]

58