Activist burnout in No Borders
The case of a highly diverse movement
Publication date
2024-12-05
Document type
Forschungsartikel
Author
Organisational unit
Publisher
SAGE Publishing
Series or journal
Transcultural Psychiatry
ISSN
Periodical volume
62
Periodical issue
2
First page
167
Last page
180
Peer-reviewed
✅
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Abstract
Activist burnout is a common threat to activists’ personal sustainability and to a movement's effectiveness. Compared to related fields such as humanitarian aid or social work we know relatively little about mental health risks in activists or how a specific activist environment may contribute to mental health outcomes. This study examines the case of the No Borders movement in Europe, a grassroots movement fighting for migrant rights. The movement's groups are highly diverse in terms of nationality, ethnicity, culture, and religion because they are composed of refugees, migrants, and local populations. Following the vulnerability-stress-model, the article asks: which specific stressors occur in the No Borders movement? The analysis is exploratory and based on ethnographic research and qualitative interviews ( N = 26). Situational Analysis (SitA) shows that: a) activists have to navigate a complex environment in which radical grassroots activism meets humanitarian emergencies, and b) in dealing with diversity and intergroup conflicts they are under pressure to live up to their political ideals. These insights led to the identification of three stressors: prefigurative betrayal, inadequate expectations, and split of life-worlds. Understanding these stressors can contribute to informing preventive measures in No Borders and in other migrant or antiracist movements.
Description
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Version
Published version
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