TY - JOUR
T1 - Transformative mindfulness: the role of mind-body practices in community-based activism
AU - Schmid, Benedikt
AU - Taylor Aiken, Gerald
PY - 2021/1/1
Y1 - 2021/1/1
N2 - This article emerges from the simple observation that community-based social and environmental activists often engage with practices of mindfulness, either personally or collectively. It draws on two case studies, a UK-based Transition initiative and a community of social entrepreneurs in Germany. On the surface, social and environmental activists, committed to change in the ‘real world’, outward facing and public, jar with practices of ‘mindfulness’: personal and interior actions –‘private’. We argue that post-foundationalist understandings of community, particularly Nancy’s being-in-common – popularised within geography as ‘community economies’ – and the philosophical and spiritual roots of mindfulness are two lines of thought that provide clues to this co-occurrence. Going beyond understandings of collectivity that build on the coming together of preformed individuals or presuppose a common substance, we set the (Westernised) Buddhist influences on mindfulness, specifically the notion of interbeing, side by side with Nancy’s being-incommon. This article argues that both the political and spiritual aspects of activism are integral parts of social change. It concludes that post-foundational and Buddhist-inspired lines of thought cross-fertilise and chart a course towards transformative mindfulness.
AB - This article emerges from the simple observation that community-based social and environmental activists often engage with practices of mindfulness, either personally or collectively. It draws on two case studies, a UK-based Transition initiative and a community of social entrepreneurs in Germany. On the surface, social and environmental activists, committed to change in the ‘real world’, outward facing and public, jar with practices of ‘mindfulness’: personal and interior actions –‘private’. We argue that post-foundationalist understandings of community, particularly Nancy’s being-in-common – popularised within geography as ‘community economies’ – and the philosophical and spiritual roots of mindfulness are two lines of thought that provide clues to this co-occurrence. Going beyond understandings of collectivity that build on the coming together of preformed individuals or presuppose a common substance, we set the (Westernised) Buddhist influences on mindfulness, specifically the notion of interbeing, side by side with Nancy’s being-incommon. This article argues that both the political and spiritual aspects of activism are integral parts of social change. It concludes that post-foundational and Buddhist-inspired lines of thought cross-fertilise and chart a course towards transformative mindfulness.
KW - Buddhism
KW - community
KW - mindfulness
KW - politics
KW - social change
KW - togetherness
KW - transition
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/38ae4788-9f48-3eff-9bb6-3952acdaa578/
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85084556039&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1474474020918888
DO - 10.1177/1474474020918888
M3 - Article
SN - 1474-4740
VL - 28
SP - 3
EP - 17
JO - Cultural Geographies
JF - Cultural Geographies
IS - 1
ER -