The Politics of Survival: Minority Women, Activism and Austerity in France and Britain

This paper examines minority women’s experiences of activism within the austerity regimes of France and Britain. Through case studies of Scotland, England and France, we explore how activists operate in this moment of political and economic uncertainty and practice a ‘politics of survival’ (Hill Collins 2000).   We show how race, class, gender and legal status interact and shape both minority women’s grassroots anti-austerity activism in each country and what kinds of claims and political actors are recognised and legitimated by both policymakers and third sector allies. We question who is audible and legitimate and how these hierarchies of knowledge and political credibility are reproduced or overthrown.  Centering minority women’s articulations of both crisis and resistance is a way to subvert the dominant narrative of both ‘crisis’ and ‘activism’ and to make new solidarities visible.