The Neoliberal Politics of Black Women's Self-Help: Sisters, Suggestions, and Systems

黑人妇女自助的新自由主义政治：姐妹、建议和系统

• 批准号: 2901830
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: London School of Economics and Political Science
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2901830
• 关键词: Neoliberal; Politics; Black; Women; Self

My research investigates the politics of producing and consuming black women's self-help (BWSH) books in a period of deepening social crisis. We are currently witnessing an increase in self-help books written by black women for black women. These books contain (hyper-)positive messages and instructions allegedly designed to help black women cope with interlocking challenges of classism, sexism, and racism. They encourage black women to take charge of our lives, indulge in self-care practices, and better manage our finances and relationships. With limited author diversity in the self-help industry, the upsurge in BWSH books seems indicative of a progressive culture. Yet, given the highly commercial nature of the publishing industry and its role in speculative capitalism, it is important to turn a critical eye to this recent development and explore the driving forces behind it. More so, it is crucial to establish whether this self-help subgenre offers social value, especially in relation to black women's emancipation which has been a foremost agenda for black feminists. Paired with an ethnographic data collection process involving publishing professionals, BWSH authors and BWSH readers as key participants, my research draws on social theory and black feminist thought as theoretical lenses for measuring the alignment, if any, between BWSH books and black feminist sensibilities.I am particularly interested in uncovering the extent to which the production and consumption of BWSH books represent a site of both gendered labour and neoliberal subjectification in black women communities. By centring black women as subjects of capitalism, I analyse the roles of BWSH authors and BWSH readers in the labouring of self and femininity against a backdrop of neoliberal governance and capitalism. Scholars of postfeminism, such as Rosalind Gill and Angela McRobbie, argue that self-help content, targeting women especially, is a gendered 'technology of the self' - a term coined by Michel Foucault to explain systems of self-regulation whereby individuals impose certain behaviours or conditions upon themselves to transform themselves. By this logic, self-help books encourage a belabouring of the self to achieve goals or ideals. At the same time, the publishing industry relies on the labour of black women to write books that demand further labour from black women. Therefore, given the commodification of self-help and its embeddedness in a capitalist system, my research analyses BWSH books as a case study in which new techniques of racial capitalism manifest.As reflected in my project's subtitle, I plan to research BWSH books with three main themes in mind: sisterhood, suggestions, and systems. Precisely, I seek to explore how neoliberalism and racial capitalism (as systems) interact with the cultivation of black sisterhood via the sharing and receiving of self-help advice. I am, in other words, concerned with the social life of BWSH books and possible tensions between both the production and consumption of these books and their emancipatory potential. This research will generate new insights into (contemporary) black feminism, racial capitalism, and the global cultural economy.

我的研究调查了在加深社会危机的时期生产和消费黑人妇女自助（BWSH）书籍的政治。我们目前正在目睹黑人妇女为黑人妇女撰写的自助书籍的增加。这些书包含（超级）积极的信息和指示，据称旨在帮助黑人妇女应对分类，性别歧视和种族主义的互联挑战。他们鼓励黑人妇女负责我们的生活，沉迷于自我保健实践，并更好地管理我们的财务和关系。随着自助行业的有限作者多样性，BWSH书中的兴起似乎表明了一种进步的文化。然而，鉴于出版行业的高度商业性质及其在投机资本主义中的作用，重要的是要对这一最近的发展进行批判性关注并探索其背后的驱动力。更重要的是，确定这种自助子流派是否具有社会价值至关重要，尤其是与黑人妇女的解放有关，这是黑人女权主义者的首要议程。我的研究与涉及出版专业人士，BWSH作者和BWSH读者的民族志数据收集过程相结合，我的研究借鉴了社会理论和黑人女权主义思想，作为衡量BWSH书籍和黑人女性主义敏感性之间的一致性（如果有的话）的理论镜头。我对揭示BWSH书籍的生产和消费代表了黑人妇女社区的性别劳动和新自由主义主题的地点的程度特别感兴趣。通过将黑人妇女作为资本主义的主题，我分析了BWSH作者和BWSH读者在新自由主义治理和资本主义背景下自我和女性气质的作用。诸如Rosalind Gill和Angela Mcrobbie之类的后女权主义学者认为，尤其是针对女性的自助内容是一种性别的“自我技术” - 米歇尔·福柯（Michel Foucault）创造的术语来解释个人的自我调节系统，使个人施加一定自我改变自己的行为或条件。通过这种逻辑，自助书籍鼓励自我实现目标或理想。同时，出版行业依靠黑人妇女的劳动来撰写要求黑人妇女进一步劳动的书籍。因此，鉴于自助的商品化及其在资本主义体系中的嵌入，我的研究将BWSH书籍分析为案例研究，其中种族资本主义的新技术表现出来。正如我项目的字幕所反映的那样，我计划与三本研究BWSH书籍一起研究BWSH书籍考虑的主要主题：姐妹情谊，建议和系统。确切地说，我试图探索新自由主义和种族资本主义如何通过共享和接受自助建议与黑人姐妹身份的培养相互作用。换句话说，我关注BWSH书籍的社会生活以及这些书籍的生产和消费之间的可能性及其解放潜力之间的紧张关系。这项研究将产生对（当代）黑人女权主义，种族资本主义和全球文化经济的新见解。