6 Belonging as Affect: Towards Paradigms for Reciprocal Care in Community-Based Research
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Sukhmani Khorana
Abstract
This final chapter aims to advance our understanding of belonging and its affective dimensions. It begins by reflecting on belonging as a ‘feeling of our times’, albeit a political one that attempts to move past a superficial, libertarian focus on harmony in new migrant communities. Instead, through the case study of a recent migrant community project with a creative outcome based in South West Sydney, it examines what belonging looks and feels like when the focus is on co-creating cultural safety through approaches that favour reciprocity and creative agency. Through the case studies, it spotlights the following aspects of belonging: (1) it is more effective than ‘identity’ as a point of solidarity in the 21st century; (2) it needs to be seen as a ‘reciprocal affect’ and not just as an individual feeling to make solidarity possible; (c) its manifestation in the local and/or the creative is a way to ground and enable reciprocal affect.
Abstract
This final chapter aims to advance our understanding of belonging and its affective dimensions. It begins by reflecting on belonging as a ‘feeling of our times’, albeit a political one that attempts to move past a superficial, libertarian focus on harmony in new migrant communities. Instead, through the case study of a recent migrant community project with a creative outcome based in South West Sydney, it examines what belonging looks and feels like when the focus is on co-creating cultural safety through approaches that favour reciprocity and creative agency. Through the case studies, it spotlights the following aspects of belonging: (1) it is more effective than ‘identity’ as a point of solidarity in the 21st century; (2) it needs to be seen as a ‘reciprocal affect’ and not just as an individual feeling to make solidarity possible; (c) its manifestation in the local and/or the creative is a way to ground and enable reciprocal affect.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements vi
- Series Preface ix
- Introduction: Feelings and Migrants Come and Go, and some Stay/Stick 1
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Empathy
- Witnessing as an Expression of Critical Empathy: An Examination of Audience Responses to a Refugee-Themed Documentary 19
- Jacinda Ardern and the Politics of Leadership Empathy: Towards Emotional Communities of Transformation 32
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Aspiration
- Asian Americans and Asian Australians on Screen: Aspiring to Centre the Community Through Comedy 49
- Aspiration for Collective Progress: Diversity and Digital Intimacy as Practised by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (US), Sadiq Khan (UK) and Jagmeet Singh (Canada) 63
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Belonging
- Refugee Storytellers Claim Belonging: Agency, Community and Change Through the Arts 81
- Belonging as Affect: Towards Paradigms for Reciprocal Care in Community-Based Research 94
- Conclusion: Care and Resilience in the Face of Increasing Precarity – COVID-19 and Beyond 108
- References 121
- Index 141
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- Acknowledgements vi
- Series Preface ix
- Introduction: Feelings and Migrants Come and Go, and some Stay/Stick 1
-
Empathy
- Witnessing as an Expression of Critical Empathy: An Examination of Audience Responses to a Refugee-Themed Documentary 19
- Jacinda Ardern and the Politics of Leadership Empathy: Towards Emotional Communities of Transformation 32
-
Aspiration
- Asian Americans and Asian Australians on Screen: Aspiring to Centre the Community Through Comedy 49
- Aspiration for Collective Progress: Diversity and Digital Intimacy as Practised by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (US), Sadiq Khan (UK) and Jagmeet Singh (Canada) 63
-
Belonging
- Refugee Storytellers Claim Belonging: Agency, Community and Change Through the Arts 81
- Belonging as Affect: Towards Paradigms for Reciprocal Care in Community-Based Research 94
- Conclusion: Care and Resilience in the Face of Increasing Precarity – COVID-19 and Beyond 108
- References 121
- Index 141
