Purling Politics
Crafting Resistance with the Knitting Nannas Against Gas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v18i4.1739Keywords:
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, craftivism, resistance, activismAbstract
In recent years, growing dissatisfaction with predominant forms of political resistance has underpinned pursuits of ‘alternative’ forms of political activism. An example of this is the way in which growing interest in creative and craft-based acts of resistance has led to the coining of the term ‘craftivism’ (craft activism). Often posited as a gentler, more inclusive form of political engagement by its advocates, practices framed as ‘craftivist’ are gaining increasing popularity and visibility. However, emergent work conceptualising craftivism has thus far tended to focus on (and to critique) a somewhat limited representation of the bodies and practices that use craft in/as resistance. In response, this paper aims to deepen current conceptions of the use of craft in/as resistance, using insights from feminist geography to foreground the already existing multiplicity of actors and practices that craft resistance in varied ways. Drawing on research with the Knitting Nannas Against Gas, this paper deepens and expands current considerations of who crafts resistance, and what is (and can yet be) crafted as resistance.
References
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Bobel, C. 2007 ‘‘I’m not an activist, though I’ve done a lot of it’: Doing Activism, Being Activist and the ‘Perfect Standard’ in a Contemporary Movement’, Social Movement Studies 6(2) pp. 147-159.
Boothroyd, S. Bowen, R. Cattermole, A. ChangSwanson, K. Daltrop, H. Dwyer, S. Gunn, A. Kramer, B. McCartan, D. M. Nagra, J. Samimi S. & YoonPotkins, Q. 2017 ‘(Re)producing feminine bodies: emergent spaces through contestation in the Women’s March on Washington’, Gender, Place and Culture, 24(5) pp. 711-721.
Bratich, J. Z. and Brush, H. M. 2011 ‘Fabricating Activism: Craft-Work, Popular Culture, Gender’, Utopian Studies 22(2) pp. 233-260.
Brown, G. and Pickerill, J. 2009 ‘Space for emotion in the spaces of activism’, Emotion, Space and Society 2 pp. 24-35.
Carr, C. and Gibson, C. 2016 ‘Geographies of making: rethinking materials and skills for volatile futures’, Progress in Human Geography 40(3) pp. 293-315.
Chatterton, P. and Pickerill, J. 2010 ‘Everyday activism and transitions towards post-carbon worlds’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(4) pp. 475-490.
Chatterton, P. 2006 ‘“Give up Activism” and Change the World in Unknown Ways; Or, Learning to Walk with Others on Uncommon Ground’, Antipode 38(2) pp. 259-281.
Clarke, K. 2016 ‘Willful Knitting? Contemporary Australian craftivism and feminist histories’, Continuum, 30(3) pp. 298-306.
Craftivist Collective, No Date ‘Changing our world one stitch at a time…’ (online) Available: <https://craftivist-collective.com/> Date Accessed: 06/03/18.
Dombroski, K. 2016 ‘Seeing Diversity, Multiplying Possibility: My Journey from Post-feminism to Post-development with J. K. Gibson-Graham’ in W. Harcourt (ed) The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Development, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, pp. 312-328.
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Dyson, J. and Jeffrey, C. 2018 ‘Everyday prefiguration: Youth social action in North India’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 43 pp. 573-585.
Gillespie, K. 2016 ‘Witnessing Animal Others: Bearing Witness, Grief and the Political Function of Emotion’, Hypatia 31(3) pp. 572-588.
Gökarıksel, B. and Smith, S. 2017 ‘Intersectional feminism beyond U.S. flag hijab and pussy hats in Trump’s America’, Gender, Place and Culture 24(5) pp. 628-644.
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Greer, B. 2011 ‘Craftivist History’ in M. E. Buszek (ed) Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, Duke University Press, Durham, pp. 175-183.
Horton, J. and Kraftl, P. 2009 ‘Small acts, kind words and “not too much fuss”: Implicit activisms’, Emotion, Space and Society 2 pp. 14-23.
Jenkins, K. 2015 ‘Unearthing Women’s Anti-Mining Activism in the Andes: Pachamama and the “Mad Old Woman”’, Antipode 47(2) pp. 442-460.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. 2014 ‘Being the Revolution, or, How to Live in a “More-Than-Capitalist” World Threatened with Extinction’, Rethinking Marxism 26(1) pp. 76-94.
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Gibson-Graham, J. K. 2006 A Postcapitalist Politics, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Kelly, M. 2014 ‘Knitting as a feminist project?’, Women’s Studies International Forum 44 pp. 133-144.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, No Date (A) ‘The Nannafesto’ [online] Available: <http://knitting-nannas.com/philosphy.php> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, No Date (B) ‘The original Knitting Nannas – Les Tricoteuses’ [online] Available: <https://knitting-nannas.com/origins.php> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, No Date (C) ‘What do we do?’ [online] Available: <https://www.knitting-nannas.com/what.php> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas Lismore 2017, ‘We love solar and we vote’ [online] Available: <https://www.facebook.com/1630620140535935/photos/pcb.1821522441445703/1821519861445961/?type=3&theater> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Larri, L. and Newlands, M. 2017 ‘Knitting Nannas and Frackman: A gender analysis of Australian anti-coal seam gas documentaries (CSG) and implications for environmental adult education’, The Journal of Environmental Education 48(1) pp. 35-45.
Martin, D. G. Hanson, S. and Fontaine, D. 2007 ‘What Counts as Activism?: The Role of Individuals in Creating Change’, Women’s Studies Quarterly 35(3/4) pp. 78-94.
McKay, G. 1998 (ed) DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain, Verso, London.
Mott, C. and Cockayne, D. 2017 ‘Citation matters: mobilizing the politics of citation toward a practice of ‘conscientious engagement’, Gender, Place and Culture 24(7) pp. 954-973.
Mountz, A. 2018 ‘Political geography III: Bodies’, Progress in Human Geography 42(5) pp. 759-769.
Mountz, A. and Hyndman, J. 2006 ‘Feminist Approaches to the Global Intimate’, Women’s Studies Quarterly 34(1/2) pp. 446-463.
Newmeyer, T. 2008 ‘Knit one, stitch two, protest three! Examining the historical and contemporary politics of crafting’, Leisure/Loisir 32(2) pp. 437-460.
Patchett, M. 2016 ‘The taxidermist’s apprentice: stitching together the past and present of a craft practice’, Cultural Geographies 23(3) pp. 401-419.
Pink, S. 2012 Situating Everyday Life: Practices and Places, SAGE Publications, London.
Portwood-Stacer, L. 2012 ‘Anti-consumption as tactical resistance: Anarchists, subculture, and activist strategy’, Journal of Consumer Culture 12(1) pp. 87-105.
Pottinger, L. 2017 ‘Planting the seeds of a quiet activism’, Area 49(2) pp. 215-222.
Price, L. 2015 ‘Knitting and the City’, Geography Compass 9/2 pp. 81-95.
Pussyhat Project, No Date Pussyhat Project (online) Available: <https://www.pussyhatproject.com/> Date Accessed: 06/03/18.
Robertson, K. 2011 ‘Rebellious Doilies and Subversive Stitches: Writing a Craftivist History’ in M. E. Buszek (ed) Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, Duke University Press, Durham, pp. 184-203.
Routledge, P. 2012 ‘Sensuous Solidarities: Emotion, Politics and Performance in the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army’, Antipode 44(2) pp. 428-452.
Sherval, M. Askland, H. Askew, M. Hanley, J. Farrugia, D. Threadgold, S. and Coffey, J. 2018 ‘Farmers as modern-day stewards and the rise of new rural citizenship in the battle over land use’, Local Environment 23(1) pp. 100-116.
Sparke, M. 2008 ‘Political geography – political geographies of globalization III: resistance’, Progress in Human Geography 32(3) pp. 423-440.
Stivens, M. 2018 ‘Gendering cosmopolitanisms: Hospitality and the asylum seeker Other’, Women’s Studies International Forum 67, pp. 85-93.
Stops, L. 2014 ‘Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest’, Craft and Design Enquiry 6 pp. 7-28.
Turney, J. 2009 The Culture of Knitting, Berg Publishers, Oxford.
Véron, O. 2016 ‘(Extra)ordinary activism: veganism and the shaping of hermeratopias’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 36(11/12) pp. 756-773.
Wright, S. 2014 ‘Resistance’ in R. Lee, N. Castree, R. Kitchin, V. Lawson, A. Paasi, C. Philo, S. Radcliffe, S. M. Roberts and C. W. J. Withers (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Human Geography: Volume 2, SAGE, London, pp. 705-726.
Yates, L. 2015 ‘Everyday politics, social practices and movement networks: daily life in Barcelona’s social centres’, The British Journal of Sociology 66(2) pp. 236-258.
Askins, K. 2015 ‘Being Together: Everyday Geographies and the Quiet Politics of Belonging’, ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 14(2) pp. 470-78.
Askins, K. 2009 ‘‘That’s just what I do’: Placing emotion in academic activism’, Emotion, Space and Society 2 pp. 4-13.
Black, S. 2017 ‘KNIT + RESIST: placing the Pussyhat Project in the context of craft activism’, Gender, Place and Culture 24(5) pp. 696-710.
Black, A. and Burisch, N. 2011 ‘Craft Hard Die Free: Radical Curatorial Strategies for Craftivism’ in M. E. Buszek (ed) Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, Duke University Press, Durham, pp. 204-221.
Butler, J. 2013 ‘For White Girls Only? Postfeminism and the Politics of Inclusion’, Feminist Formations 25(1) pp. 35-58.
Butler, J. 2015 Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, Harvard University Press, Massachusetts.
Bobel, C. 2007 ‘‘I’m not an activist, though I’ve done a lot of it’: Doing Activism, Being Activist and the ‘Perfect Standard’ in a Contemporary Movement’, Social Movement Studies 6(2) pp. 147-159.
Boothroyd, S. Bowen, R. Cattermole, A. ChangSwanson, K. Daltrop, H. Dwyer, S. Gunn, A. Kramer, B. McCartan, D. M. Nagra, J. Samimi S. & YoonPotkins, Q. 2017 ‘(Re)producing feminine bodies: emergent spaces through contestation in the Women’s March on Washington’, Gender, Place and Culture, 24(5) pp. 711-721.
Bratich, J. Z. and Brush, H. M. 2011 ‘Fabricating Activism: Craft-Work, Popular Culture, Gender’, Utopian Studies 22(2) pp. 233-260.
Brown, G. and Pickerill, J. 2009 ‘Space for emotion in the spaces of activism’, Emotion, Space and Society 2 pp. 24-35.
Carr, C. and Gibson, C. 2016 ‘Geographies of making: rethinking materials and skills for volatile futures’, Progress in Human Geography 40(3) pp. 293-315.
Chatterton, P. and Pickerill, J. 2010 ‘Everyday activism and transitions towards post-carbon worlds’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 35(4) pp. 475-490.
Chatterton, P. 2006 ‘“Give up Activism” and Change the World in Unknown Ways; Or, Learning to Walk with Others on Uncommon Ground’, Antipode 38(2) pp. 259-281.
Clarke, K. 2016 ‘Willful Knitting? Contemporary Australian craftivism and feminist histories’, Continuum, 30(3) pp. 298-306.
Craftivist Collective, No Date ‘Changing our world one stitch at a time…’ (online) Available: <https://craftivist-collective.com/> Date Accessed: 06/03/18.
Dombroski, K. 2016 ‘Seeing Diversity, Multiplying Possibility: My Journey from Post-feminism to Post-development with J. K. Gibson-Graham’ in W. Harcourt (ed) The Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Development, Palgrave Macmillan, UK, pp. 312-328.
Dunn, K. 2016 Global Punk: Resistance and Rebellion in Everyday Life, Bloomsbury Academic, New York.
Dyck, I. 2005 ‘Feminist geography, the ‘everyday’, and local-global relations: hidden spaces of place-making’, The Canadian Geographer 49(3) pp. 233-245.
Dyson, J. and Jeffrey, C. 2018 ‘Everyday prefiguration: Youth social action in North India’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 43 pp. 573-585.
Gillespie, K. 2016 ‘Witnessing Animal Others: Bearing Witness, Grief and the Political Function of Emotion’, Hypatia 31(3) pp. 572-588.
Gökarıksel, B. and Smith, S. 2017 ‘Intersectional feminism beyond U.S. flag hijab and pussy hats in Trump’s America’, Gender, Place and Culture 24(5) pp. 628-644.
Greer, B. 2014 ‘Knitting Craftivism: From My Sofa to Yours’ in B. Greer (ed) Craftivism: The Art of Craft and Activism, Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, pp. 7-8.
Greer, B. 2011 ‘Craftivist History’ in M. E. Buszek (ed) Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, Duke University Press, Durham, pp. 175-183.
Horton, J. and Kraftl, P. 2009 ‘Small acts, kind words and “not too much fuss”: Implicit activisms’, Emotion, Space and Society 2 pp. 14-23.
Jenkins, K. 2015 ‘Unearthing Women’s Anti-Mining Activism in the Andes: Pachamama and the “Mad Old Woman”’, Antipode 47(2) pp. 442-460.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. 2014 ‘Being the Revolution, or, How to Live in a “More-Than-Capitalist” World Threatened with Extinction’, Rethinking Marxism 26(1) pp. 76-94.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. 2005 ‘Building Community Economies: Women and the Politics of Place’ in W. Harcort and A. Escobar (eds) Women and the Politics of Place, Kumarian Press, Bloomfield pp. 130-157.
Gibson-Graham, J. K. 2006 A Postcapitalist Politics, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.
Kelly, M. 2014 ‘Knitting as a feminist project?’, Women’s Studies International Forum 44 pp. 133-144.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, No Date (A) ‘The Nannafesto’ [online] Available: <http://knitting-nannas.com/philosphy.php> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, No Date (B) ‘The original Knitting Nannas – Les Tricoteuses’ [online] Available: <https://knitting-nannas.com/origins.php> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas, No Date (C) ‘What do we do?’ [online] Available: <https://www.knitting-nannas.com/what.php> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Knitting Nannas Against Gas Lismore 2017, ‘We love solar and we vote’ [online] Available: <https://www.facebook.com/1630620140535935/photos/pcb.1821522441445703/1821519861445961/?type=3&theater> Date Accessed: 10/04/2018.
Larri, L. and Newlands, M. 2017 ‘Knitting Nannas and Frackman: A gender analysis of Australian anti-coal seam gas documentaries (CSG) and implications for environmental adult education’, The Journal of Environmental Education 48(1) pp. 35-45.
Martin, D. G. Hanson, S. and Fontaine, D. 2007 ‘What Counts as Activism?: The Role of Individuals in Creating Change’, Women’s Studies Quarterly 35(3/4) pp. 78-94.
McKay, G. 1998 (ed) DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain, Verso, London.
Mott, C. and Cockayne, D. 2017 ‘Citation matters: mobilizing the politics of citation toward a practice of ‘conscientious engagement’, Gender, Place and Culture 24(7) pp. 954-973.
Mountz, A. 2018 ‘Political geography III: Bodies’, Progress in Human Geography 42(5) pp. 759-769.
Mountz, A. and Hyndman, J. 2006 ‘Feminist Approaches to the Global Intimate’, Women’s Studies Quarterly 34(1/2) pp. 446-463.
Newmeyer, T. 2008 ‘Knit one, stitch two, protest three! Examining the historical and contemporary politics of crafting’, Leisure/Loisir 32(2) pp. 437-460.
Patchett, M. 2016 ‘The taxidermist’s apprentice: stitching together the past and present of a craft practice’, Cultural Geographies 23(3) pp. 401-419.
Pink, S. 2012 Situating Everyday Life: Practices and Places, SAGE Publications, London.
Portwood-Stacer, L. 2012 ‘Anti-consumption as tactical resistance: Anarchists, subculture, and activist strategy’, Journal of Consumer Culture 12(1) pp. 87-105.
Pottinger, L. 2017 ‘Planting the seeds of a quiet activism’, Area 49(2) pp. 215-222.
Price, L. 2015 ‘Knitting and the City’, Geography Compass 9/2 pp. 81-95.
Pussyhat Project, No Date Pussyhat Project (online) Available: <https://www.pussyhatproject.com/> Date Accessed: 06/03/18.
Robertson, K. 2011 ‘Rebellious Doilies and Subversive Stitches: Writing a Craftivist History’ in M. E. Buszek (ed) Extra/Ordinary: Craft and Contemporary Art, Duke University Press, Durham, pp. 184-203.
Routledge, P. 2012 ‘Sensuous Solidarities: Emotion, Politics and Performance in the Clandestine Insurgent Rebel Clown Army’, Antipode 44(2) pp. 428-452.
Sherval, M. Askland, H. Askew, M. Hanley, J. Farrugia, D. Threadgold, S. and Coffey, J. 2018 ‘Farmers as modern-day stewards and the rise of new rural citizenship in the battle over land use’, Local Environment 23(1) pp. 100-116.
Sparke, M. 2008 ‘Political geography – political geographies of globalization III: resistance’, Progress in Human Geography 32(3) pp. 423-440.
Stivens, M. 2018 ‘Gendering cosmopolitanisms: Hospitality and the asylum seeker Other’, Women’s Studies International Forum 67, pp. 85-93.
Stops, L. 2014 ‘Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest’, Craft and Design Enquiry 6 pp. 7-28.
Turney, J. 2009 The Culture of Knitting, Berg Publishers, Oxford.
Véron, O. 2016 ‘(Extra)ordinary activism: veganism and the shaping of hermeratopias’, International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 36(11/12) pp. 756-773.
Wright, S. 2014 ‘Resistance’ in R. Lee, N. Castree, R. Kitchin, V. Lawson, A. Paasi, C. Philo, S. Radcliffe, S. M. Roberts and C. W. J. Withers (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Human Geography: Volume 2, SAGE, London, pp. 705-726.
Yates, L. 2015 ‘Everyday politics, social practices and movement networks: daily life in Barcelona’s social centres’, The British Journal of Sociology 66(2) pp. 236-258.
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Published
2019-09-12
How to Cite
Ey, M. (2019). Purling Politics: Crafting Resistance with the Knitting Nannas Against Gas. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, 18(4), 956–976. https://doi.org/10.14288/acme.v18i4.1739
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