Home space, gender and activism: The visible and the invisible in austere times

Abstract

This article argues for the centrality of the home in understanding both the impacts of ‘austerity’ in the UK and potential activist responses. The article focuses on gendered forms of activism, particularly among low-income women. Empirical material is drawn from research with women in different contexts, a network of migrant women in London and a group of community activists in Stoke-on-Trent, in order to identify three particular registers of home-based and, by extension, community activism, including notions of ‘the everyday’, ‘the inbetween’ and experiences of trauma. There is also a brief discussion of housing activism in contemporary London in order to explore how such analysis might be applied to other forms of organising. There is a call for more sustained consideration of these often hidden forms of activism from researchers in understanding, as well as intervening in, the dynamics of contemporary social policy and governance.