O'Hara, Lorna (2020) Geographies of Feminist Activism in Berlin and Dublin: Hybrid Feminist Counterpublic Spaces of Resistance. PhD thesis, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

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Abstract

Feminist activists have long confronted violence against women (VAW), re-defining violence and defying narratives that normalise or excuse it. This thesis explores how feminist activisms challenge violence in place in ways that elucidate the complex reality of violence across a range of spaces and how we can better develop collective responses. In particular, I ask how the spatial tactics of feminist groups/projects in two European capital cities, Berlin and Dublin, call attention to violence at multiple scales. Feminist resistance has traditionally been classified according to ‘waves’ of feminism, with the most recent ‘fourth wave’ characterised by the use of new media. Moving from this, I propose a feminist geotemporal approach, building on work in sexualities geographies, that acknowledges the unique socio-political environment and temporalities in which activisms emerge. Matching this with a transnational feminist research design, I respond to the multiplicity and fluidity of feminist knowledges. In-depth interviews and participant observation were undertaken in ways that evolved through engagements with activists in their localities. Centring activist understandings and voices, the thesis focuses on four case studies: the anti-street harassment group Hollaback!Berlin (Berlin. 2015-16), the pro-choice artist-activist group home|work.collective (Dublin, 2016-18), the pro-choice ‘Repeal the 8th’ mural (Dublin, 2016-18), and the anti-harassment queer feminist group, She*Claim (Berlin, 2016-18). A conceptualisation of feminist hybrid counterpublic spaces was developed to offer ways of thinking about how feminisms form in place, with increasing digitisation and opportunities to enact feminist politics across new technologies. The three main case studies reveal how feminist anti-violence and reproductive rights activists made use of digital storytelling, mapping, social media, and artistic, site-based practices to share their emotional and embodied experiences with others across space and time. In this way, the thesis conceptualises the complex ways that modern-day feminists challenge and resist VAW, reshape local urban space and create feminist politics through hybrid practices in place.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Keywords:	Feminist Activism; Berlin; Dublin; Hybrid Feminist Counterpublic Spaces; Resistance;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Geography
Item ID:	14877
Depositing User:	IR eTheses
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2021 14:52
URI:
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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