The lonely activist: On being haunted

In our six-nation comparative research project examining how women of colour activists in London, Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen and Madrid organise mobilise against austerity, the far right for migrants’ rights, we found experiencing intense feelings loneliness their work. Emotional turmoil activist spaces is to be expected since are mobilised action precisely because deeply felt emotions about a particular social problem. However, argue that activists’ structural alienation born out operation white supremacy, patriarchy, classism, queerphobia, ableism xenophobia not only wider society but especially spaces. Women made lonely by unspoken power relations effectuated through emotions. trying negotiate feeling rules spaces, much colour’s emotion work doomed failure many constituted taken granted dominations which unable unwilling reconcile feelings.