What is this publication about?
The following is an attempt at producing an open source course/publication that draws on reflections from the Constructing Solidarities for a Humane Urbanism symposium and its preceding events held in Champaign and Chicago, Illinois in September 2017.
The symposium brought together activists and scholars to share and reflect on their experiences in constructing solidarities across boundaries—activist/academic, formal/informal politics, nationalities—and overlapping identities—racialized, ethnicized, gendered, sexualized. This symposium was funded by the Illinois International Program Conference Grant and was built on a yearlong Insurgent Midwest project. This project, supported by the Humanities Without Walls consortium and funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, brought together a group of scholars and activists from the Midwestern U.S., South Africa, and Mexico. Our motivation has been to facilitate spaces for conversation among globally conscious but locally situated insurgent practices for a more humane urban development and urbanism. The symposium responded to our urgent need for a space of collaborative reflection and exchange within a broader community of scholars/activists who have extensive experience in the field of transnational social/solidarity movements.
The material of this open source publication is organized around 15 modules that users can access to support teaching and training initiatives. There are four main sections to this publication:
Section I. The Movements: Forging Transnational Solidarities
Section II. Displacement, Racism, and Alienation in the Time of Late Capitalism
Section III. Getting Through Collectives
Section IV. Forging Radical Care
Each of these sections contains different modules that can be accessed throughout this publication.