Appendix 2: Methods

This project was first conceptualized after many informal conversations with others in social movements, as we grappled with how to address this current moment of crisis. With support and challenge, my peers encouraged me to dig deep on the question of belonging, a question that can often be deprioritized for the sake of “more urgent” or timely needs.

Although this project was not a formal or academic research endeavor, I’ve used practices from qualitative research to inform the process. It was my intention to ask reflection-provoking questions, look across conversations for commonalities and differences, and glean practical insights as to how we can best cultivate belonging. 

The project started in early 2022 with a review of existing literature and scholarship on belonging and social movements. I then had an initial, informal round of conversations to fine tune the project’s key question, preliminary conversation prompts, and outreach list. 

I’m extremely grateful to all the leaders and strategists who trusted me with their time and experiences. Many of the people I talked to are people I have known through social movement work, and many of them then recommended others. I consider these people “conversation partners” rather than interviewees, as we often exchanged experiences and questions. I did not aim to be purely objective, and instead focussed on bringing earnest curiosity to each conversation. Unlike institutionalized research projects, I do not claim neutrality in this process. 

Across the 26 people I spoke with, I sought to connect with people across movement sectors, who each have unique experiences moving culture and people forward. I prioritized people who have worked in base-building organizations, in addition to a few who directly address movement culture. Of course, this is no perfect sample of the diversity of left movement culture in the United States.

Conversations occurred in the first half of 2023, with a few at the very end of 2022. All but one meeting happened over Zoom. Given the personal nature of the topic, many conversations strayed away from one singular set of questions, but ultimately came back to the questions of belonging and strategy in Left movements. Following each talk, interviews were transcribed through Otter.ai, and cleaned up by myself (the computer did not know what dialectical materialism is!). 

To select key quotes and identify major themes, I used Dedoose to code all interviews. Codes were created after a preliminary read through of interviews, and checked against existing literature. Some codes emerged in vivo during the coding process. In total, each interview was coded twice using 33 codes. With the same software I looked into common and uncommon code co-occurrences, and synthesized as much data as possible to identify the practices listed in this workbook. 

At each step of the process I received feedback on my work (reading lists, conversation questions, outreach list, codes, analysis) from trusted peers who helped to highlight any gaps or refine key ideas.

Appendix 3: List of Conversation Partners

1. Fahd Ahmed
2. Max Airborne
3. Patty Berne 
4. Zahra Billoo
5. adrienne maree brown
6. Jeff Chang
7. Gopal Dayaneni
8. Ejeris Dixon
9. Bran Fenner
10. Kiyomi Fujikawa
11. Elliott Fukui
12. Kris Hayashi 
13. Leo Hegde
14. Jasmin Hoo
15. Linda Lee
16. NTanya Lee
17. Katie Loncke
18. Denise Perry
19. Irma Shauf-Bajar
20. Hyejin Shim
21. Michael Strom
22. Alex Tom
23. Tré Vasquez
24. Yuan Wang
25. ill Weaver 
26. Sasha Wijeyeratne

Although many conversation partners spoke from their personal experiences in organizations, no one formally represented their organization’s practices or stance, and so I’ve omitted any affiliations.

On Lineage

In no way am I the first person to think about the importance of belonging in the world or in social movements. I give much reverence to movements led by trans people of color, youth and elders, and disabled people for modeling this culture throughout history. I’ve learned greatly from generative somatics and called on resources from the Othering and Belonging Institute, as well as many others, to understand the fundamental need of belonging. This topic has been explored thoroughly, and I hope to contribute by speaking directly to the potential for belonging within base building organizations.

Biography