Overview

Conflict and resolution are the lifeblood of social movements. How, and with whom, do we find lasting friendship, support, and joy in a world in need of so much repair? In On Activism, Friendships, and Fighting veteran organizer and social worker Benjamin Heim Shepard traces a pressing dynamic of social movements: friendship and conflict. The project builds on oral histories with more than thirty movement organizers-from AIDS, queer, trade union, community, Occupy, and harm reduction-based movements-reflecting on the lessons, meanings, and future directions of movements and collective organizing efforts. ""There is a hunger for radical history to give credit to past struggles, to learn from our mistakes and to improve our strategies for the future,"" writes Lesley Wood. Oral histories trace the stories of these movements. The book goes in depth into the reasons and ways the interviewees became involved in activism, the friendships they formed, and the conflicts they faced. This includes asking questions such as: where do friendships support or undermine these efforts? How can conflicts be resolved? And where do people find lasting support?

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9781945335167

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"""[O]nly Benjamin Shepard, who links personal narrative and movement analysis with uncommon felicity, uses his own experiences to significantly deepen his insights"" --Geoffrey Kurtz, Logos Seeking additional endorsements from: Sarah Schulman, author of Conflict is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Indigenous People's History of the United States and Roots of Resistance Frances Fox Piven, Distinguished Professor, CUNY Graduate Center, and author of Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America Ron Hayduk, Professor of Political Science, Queens College/CUNY and rebel friend among activists from global justice to immigrant rights, Occupy to the Lower East Side Collective Stephen Duncombe, Professor of Media and Culture, NYU, and Co-Director, Center of Artistic Activism Marina Sitrin, author of Everyday Revolutions: Horizontalism and Autonomy in Argentina and coauthor of They Can't Represent Us!: Reinventing Democracy from Greece to Occupy"

“Benjamin Shepard, who links personal narrative and movement analysis with uncommon felicity, uses his own experiences to significantly deepen his insights.” —Geoffrey Kurtz, Logos

Author Information

Benjamin H. Shepard, PhD, LMSW, works as Professor of Human Services at City Tech/CUNY. He has organized protests with ACT UP, SexPanic!, Reclaim the Streets, the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army, Absurd Response, CitiWide Harm Reduction, Housing Works, More Gardens Coalition, Time's UP!, Right of Way, Occupy Wall Street, Occupy the Pipeline, Resist AIM, Public Space Party, and the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York, where he is a chapter chair at New York City College of Technology. Shepard has written and edited ten books, including recent titles Rebel Friendships: ""Outsider"" Networks and Social Movements (Sage, 2015); Sustainable Urbanism (Roman and Littlefield, 2017); Brooklyn Tides with Mark Noonan (Transcript, 2017); and Narrating Perspectives on Childhood and Adolescence (Columbia University Press, 2018).

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