In this Policy Brief, Jelle Philippus Ronaldus Buijs - former NMBU Master student supported by the TOWARDS sustainability arena - writes about his research on the lived experiences of protesters and how it can lead to a better understanding of the personal sphere of transformations.
Abstract:
Considering that not every transformation results in equitable and sustainable outcomes, understanding transformation and how crises are experienced empirically is required to support transformations towards equity and sustainability. This research theoretically explores and empirically specifies the personal sphere of transformation, and its linkage to the political sphere. It offers a case study of protesters in a context where a polycrisis is clearly manifesting and becoming increasingly contested in the form of protests, riots, and electoral victories of radical right-wing parties: the city of the Hague, the Netherlands. This study is guided by a feminist relational approach, which derives theory from lived experiences, including those of the marginalized.
Relational interviews are employed to learn through dialogue how protesters interpret the world. The research found that the protesters were witnessing, and in most cases going through, a process of ‘waking up’. Their awakening resembles significant changes in meaning-making, and is part of the personal transformation they went through in response to the multiple crises manifesting in their lives. The way protesters give meaning to their agency once they have woken up remains diverse. How protesters act upon their personal transformation ultimately shapes the political sphere. More attention should be paid to the personal sphere of transformation, and its linkage to the political sphere, in theory and practice. Meaningful engagement with the personal sphere can open up multiple entry points for transformation towards sustainability. A feminist relational approach makes key contribution to the scholarly understanding of the personal and political spheres of transformation.