LATINX FEMINIST POLITICMAKING: On the NECESSITY of MESSINESS in COLLECTIVE ACTION*

Abstract

There is an ongoing debate in the sociology of collective action on the function of difference—often measured as group diversity—in mobilization. While some scholarship suggests that difference is often an impediment to collective action, other research finds that activisms attuned to difference can produce more flexible mobilization capable of tackling converging oppressions. To understand the meanings and negotiations of difference in collective action, this article examines how Latinx feminists do intersectionality in the movement for reproductive justice (RJ). Drawing on three years of ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with a Latina/x reproductive justice organization in California, I argue that staff of the organization engage in contextual, relational, and cultural shift practices that together create a fluid sensibility, what I term “politicmaking,” focused on negotiating difference as a necessarily fraught and messy endeavor. The “politicmaking” of movement actors suggests the need to reexamine the role of difference in collective action.