Abstract
This chapter is an attempt to write about writing as an engaged method of resistance and liberation, and it is also to attempt to engage in resistance and liberation through writing. It is thus to attempt to write against power in many and diverse forms. In this chapter, it is argued that writing is a powerful and ubiquitous discursive component of interconnected ensembles central to academics being governed, rendered compliant, disabled and disappeared and so is a practice which, as conventionally constituted, must be resisted, but it is also suggested that writing as unconventionally constituted can be an important and powerful engaged method of resistance and liberation. Rather than beginning with what may, to some readers, be inaccessible extended critical theorisation, theoretical issues will be explicated in the course of describing some examples of the author’s own writing, over several decades, intended when written to resist and liberate. Although there is a focus here on unemployment, the argument can be rehearsed with other contemporary writing about precarious employment; disabling practices; heterosexism; inequality; human rights and colonialism.
“Those who are separated from what they can do, can, however, still resist; they can still not do”
(Agamben, 2011, p. 45).
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
UCA in the above quotation is an acronym for Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas.
- 2.
Ignacio Ellacuria, Rector of the Universidad Centroamericana Jose Simeon Canas.
- 3.
The scare quotes are an acknowledgement of the troubling of the notion of “author” by Foucault (1984, pp. 101–120).
References
Agamben, A. (2011). Nudities. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Aron, A., & Corne, S. (1994). Writings for a liberation psychology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Biehl, J., Good, B., & Kleinman, A. (2007). Subjectivity: Ethnographic investigations. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Cassell, C., Fitter, M., Fryer, D., & Smith, L. (1988). The development of computer applications by unemployed people in community settings. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 61, 89–102.
Connell, R. (2007). Southern theory. Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin.
Darwin, J., Fitter, M., Fryer, D., & Smith, L. (1987). Developing information technology in the community with unwaged groups. In P. Bjerknes, P. Ehn, & M. Kyng (Eds.), Computers and democracy (pp. 315–334). Aldershot: Avebury Gower.
Faubion, J. D. (Ed.). (2001). Power: The essential works of Foucault, 1954–1984 (Vol. 3). New York, NY: New Press.
Foucault, M. (1984). What is an author? In P. Rabinow (Ed.), The Foucault reader (pp. 101–120). London: Penguin.
Foucault, M. (1981/2001). So is it important to think? (R. Hurley, trans.) In J. Faubion (Ed.), Power: The essential works of Foucault 1954–1984 (Vol. 3, pp. 456–457). New York, NY: New Press.
Fryer, D. (1985). The positive functions of unemployment. Radical Community Medicine, 21, 3–10.
Fryer, D. (1986). Employment deprivation and personal agency during unemployment. Social Behaviour, 1(3), 3–23.
Fryer, D. (1990). The mental health costs of unemployment: Towards a social psychological concept of poverty. British Journal of Clinical and Social Psychiatry, 7(4), 164–176.
Fryer, D. (2013). Book review of qualitative research methods in mental health and psychotherapy: A guide for students and practitioners by D. Harper & A. R. Thompson (2012). Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 24, 169–171.
Fryer, D. (2014a). Unemployment. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of critical psychology (pp. 2031–2036). New York, NY: Springer.
Fryer, D. (2014b). Psychology, indigeneity and science. In S. Cooper & K. Ratele (Eds.), Psychology serving humanity (pp. 91–97). East Sussex: Psychology Press.
Fryer, D. (2015). What can psychology contribute to the defence and promotion of human rights? The Journal of Critical Psychology Counselling and Psychotherapy, 15(4), 199–203.
Fryer, D., & Duckett, P. (2014). Publishing. In T. Teo (Ed.), Encyclopaedia of critical psychology (pp. 1605–1610). New York, NY: Springer.
Fryer, D., & McCormack, C. (2011). The war without bullets: Socio-structural violence from a critical standpoint. In E. Almeida (Ed.), International community psychology: Community approaches to contemporary social problems (pp. 213–232). Puebla: Universidad Iberoamericana.
Fryer, D., & McCormack, C. (2012). The war without bullets: Socio-structural violence from a critical standpoint. Global Journal of Community Psychology Practice, 3(1), 87–92.
Fryer, D., & McCormack, C. (2013). Psychology and poverty reduction. Australian Community Psychologist, 25(1), 7–2.
Fryer, D., & McKenna, S. (1987). The laying off of hands: Unemployment and the experience of time. In S. Fineman (Ed.), Unemployment: Personal and social consequences (pp. 47–73). London: Tavistock.
Fryer, D., & McKenna, S. (1988). Redundant skills: Temporary unemployment and mental health. In M. Patrickson (Ed.), Readings in organizational behaviour (pp. 44–70). New South Wales: Harper and Row.
Fryer, D., & Payne, R. L. (1984). Pro-activity in unemployment: Findings and implications. Leisure Studies, 3, 273–295.
Fryer, D., & Payne, R. L. (1986). Being unemployed: A review of the literature on the psychological experience of unemployment. In C. L. Cooper & I. Robertson (Eds.), International review of industrial and organizational psychology (pp. 235–278). Chichester: Wiley.
Fryer, D., & Stambe, R. (2014a). Neo-liberal austerity and unemployment: Critical psychological issues. The Psychologist, 27(4), 244–248.
Fryer, D., & Stambe, R. (2014b). Work and the crafting of individual identities from a critical standpoint. Australian Community Psychologist, 26(1), 8–17.
Fryer, D., & Stambe, R. (2015). Unemployment and mental health. In J. Wright (Ed.), International encyclopedia of social and behavioral sciences (2nd ed., pp. 733–737). Oxford: Elsevier.
Gans, H. J. (1972–1973). The positive functions of poverty. American Journal of Sociology, 78(2), 275–289.
Hansen, M. P. (2016). Non-normative critique: Foucault and pragmatic sociology as tactical re-politicization. European Journal of Social Theory, 19(1), 127–145.
Hartley, J. F., & Fryer, D. (1984). The psychology of unemployment: A critical appraisal. In G. M. Stephenson & J. H. Davis (Eds.), Progress in applied social psychology (pp. 3–30). Chichester: Wiley.
Henriques, J., Hollway, W., Urwin, C., Venn, C., & Walkerdine, V. (1998). Changing the subject. London: Routledge.
Jahoda, M. (1982). Employment and unemployment: A social-psychological analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McCormack, C. (2009). The wee yellow butterfly. Glenaruel: Argyll Publishing.
McGhee, J., & Fryer, D. (1989). Unemployment, income and the family: An action research perspective. Social Behaviour, 4, 237–252.
McKenna, S., & Fryer, D. (1984). Perceived health during lay-off and early unemployment. Occupational Health, 36(5), 201–206.
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonising methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. London: Zed Books.
Warr, P. B. (1987). Work, unemployment and mental health. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Acknowledgements
I thank anonymous reviewers for feedback on a draft of this chapter.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Fryer, D. (2017). Writing as an Engaged Method of Resistance and Liberation. In: Seedat, M., Suffla, S., Christie, D. (eds) Emancipatory and Participatory Methodologies in Peace, Critical, and Community Psychology. Peace Psychology Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63489-0_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63489-0_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-63488-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-63489-0
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)