Why Atlanta?: a case study of how place produces intersectional social movement groups

Abstract

The role of place is undertheorized in the literature on intersectional social movements; this study uses Atlanta, Georgia as an exemplary case study of how the characteristics of geographical areas shape the possibilities for intersectional social movement organizing. Atlanta is home to a rare trend of men’s gender justice groups that organize around one or more additional intersecting identities (e.g. race, sexuality, religion). Across the country there are groups like Men Can Stop Rape and Men Against Sexual Violence, but Atlanta has Black Men for the Eradication of Sexism, Muslim Men Against Domestic Violence (MMADV), and the Sweet Tea Southern Queer Men's Collective. Based on a year of participant-observation and interviews with MMADV and Sweet Tea, this paper illustrates how local grassroots activism is shaped by four types of interweaving place-based factors: demographic, geographic, cultural, and institutional. By enabling necessary precursors, these factors combine to create an environment where multiple intersectionally-organized men's gender justice groups could form, independently of each other, despite being extremely uncommon elsewhere in the country. The article develops a model for theorizing about intersectionality, space and place, social movements and activism, and contemporary feminism, as well as contributing to knowledge about activism in the understudied context of the Southern city.

Keywords:

• Atlanta
• class
• gender
• intersectionality
• mobilization
• race
• sexuality
• social movements
• space and place

Acknowledgements

My gratitude to Michael Messner, Shari Dworkin, Allen Furr, Karen Pooley, my reviewers and the editorial team at GPC, the members of MMADV and Sweet Tea, and all who welcomed me into Atlanta’s social movement communities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tal Peretz

Tal Peretz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at Auburn University, has engaged in and studied men’s anti-sexist and anti-violence activism for over a decade. He is the author of “Some Men: Male Allies and the Movement to End Violence Against Women” (Oxford University Press, www.somemen.org), co-written with Michael Messner and Max Greenberg. His latest research looks at how intersecting race, class, religious, and sexual identities shape men’s gender justice organizing.