Only a few weeks until UK Feminista’s Summer School. Alas, the weekend of training for activists is fully booked.
But if you are already signed up, I’ll be on the ‘Women and Media’ panel with Hannah Pool and Kira Cochrane.
Image by Shirin K. A. Winiger and shared under a Creative Commons license on Flickr
Most of us are well-trained in working in a hierarchy - particularly in our workplaces. When we get involved in groups or organisations structured in other ways, it can be a challenge.
Being part of a consensus-led group, The F-Word bloggers’ collective, could not be more different to the newsroom environment of my workplace. Hungry for more help on how to contribute more effectively, I have been soaking up information as and where I can find it: much of the experience of feminist and womanist collectives is hard to access.
Joan Braderman, director of The Heretics documentary, has posted the entire archive of feminist art magazine Heresies online. Fascinating to dig through in its own right. However, one of the most precious roles of this documentary as far as I’m concerned is the interviews with former collective members about all-night meetings in artists lofts, the testy creative process of putting the magazine together – the drawbacks and benefits. Just for example, swapping roles each issue gives everyone a chance to experiment with the different aspects of magazine production, but some lessons are lost as learning is not transferred. (Look out for my interview with Joan and review of this film on The F-Word, later this month). Of course, these meetings were not recorded – and many of the insights on how to publish a magazine (or a blog!) as a collective are in danger of being lost. And we end up becoming experts in wheel reinvention.
Jo Freeman’s Tyranny of Structurelessness will leave you with no illusions that it is possible to simply launch into a collective or consensus-decision-making group with no guidance or thought:
“This means that to strive for a ’structureless’ group is as useful and as deceptive, as to aim at an ‘objective’ news story, ‘value-free’ social science or a ‘free’ economy. A ‘laissez-faire’ group is about as realistic as a ‘laissez-faire’ society; the idea becomes a smokescreen for the strong or the lucky to establish unquestioned hegemony over others.”
To hone my skills at ‘doing collectives’ more successfully, I attended a very useful workshop this weekend, put on by Seeds for Change. Sparing you the thorough debrief I have already emailed to The F-Word collective email list, nonetheless I have to link up this fantastic set of online, copyright-free resources.
Environmental Finance magazine – where I am senior staff writer – had a recent redesign, and it is now possible to register for free and read many of the news stories I am writing there. Features are still behind a subscriber-only pay-wall, however, just for example, here is one of my stories from last week: the US Export-Import bank first decided to reject the massive Sasan Coal Project, made up of a nearly 4,000MW power plant – and a significant coal mine to feed it with fuel. Responding to this decision, the project developer promised to build a renewable generator at some future time – and Ex-Im flipped to support the project.
Audience at Feminism in London 2009
I’m an amateur not a professional photographer, but it is satisfying to volunteer my services for interesting events. This year I was one of the official photographers at the Feminism in London conference. See the whole set here.
A rare chance arose to combine the two halves of my professional life: covering climate change issues as a journalist and writing commentary from a feminist perspective.
You can read my post on The Guardian’s Comment is Free site here:
Population control is not what makes climate change a feminist issue
I’ve occasionally blogged about some of these linkages between climate change and feminism at The F-Word as well – in one recent post for this year’s Blog Action Day (and knowing how the blogosphere loves lists) I highlighted nine inspiring examples women’s climate activism.
The magazine I work for, Environmental Finance, does not currently publish much of our content online – but one of my recent features about sustainable banking was put up this month as a sample feature (meaning, to entice readers to subscribe and give a sense of our coverage).
It’s looking at how the whole notion of “sustainable banking” has held up after the credit crunch, and you can read it here.
This little site is here to be an online portfolio for my writing work. I’ll be posting links to my published writing here in future – in the meantime, here’s some background on where I’m coming from:
Blogging
I am the editor of The F-Word, an online magazine and blog for, by and about feminism(s) in the UK. Otherwise I contribute to some other blogs, such as Liberal Conspiracy.
You can also find me blogging – much less frequently, but with more of a personal touch – at Sugar Crash.
Journalism
I’m senior staff writer for Environmental Finance magazine and have worked as a freelance reporter covering green, environmental and business issues for the last few years.
On a freelance basis, I also write about gender issues and feminism for various national newspapers, magazines and websites. But you can read more about my professional history and my most up-to-date CV over at LinkedIn.
