What is individualism?

Summary: In this episode, hosts Carolina and Vidhya unpack one of the central pillars upholding racial and gendered capitalism and neoliberalism: individualism. We reflect on how individualism is associated with freedom, AKA “the West,” and contrasted with tradition, AKA “the rest.” We interrogate how it shows up in our personal lives and is built into our work—including NPIC and evaluation’s training, practice, and literature as well as existing field-building and change efforts.

Episode 7 transcript⁠

Notes

• 02:17 “Utopia” as perceived or portrayed by dominating forces

• 11:55 Concentric circles still center the individual and nuclear family, unlike the more web-like nature of many kinship structures around the world, including those common in South Asia and West Africa.

• 21:45 Others may counter that democratic governance structures had existed among peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Asia long before the European Enlightenment. “We All Know A Democracy When We See One”: (Neo)liberal orthodoxy in the ‘democratisation’ and ‘good governance’ project.

• 29:22 The government programs that presidents Roosevelt and Johnson each instituted were systematically eroded throughout the 1980s as the notion of “personal responsibility” replaced “rugged individualism.” The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, also known as Welfare Reform, influenced by Republicans’ Contract with America, was passed under Clinton’s presidency but in 1996 rather than 1998.

• 38:36 The setup is that colonial and capitalist destruction of our lands, economies, and social structures leads us to seek opportunities to fulfill our dreams—or simply survive—elsewhere. In an attempt to survive within this larger, international structure of individualism, we retain remnants of collectivism and create pockets of connectedness with our histories, cultures, and communities. Focusing on whether any particular individual makes the right choice detracts from the artificial binary between freedom and connectedness that individualism sets up.

• 41:37 This particular artist did not want to ruin her child’s innocence—it was an act of resistance and demonstration of sovereignty to have her child grow up in a way that was not defined by colonization and racism. In contrast, Vidhya’s parents started their lives as colonial subjects and later gave birth to their children as newcomers in a foreign country. Now a parent herself, she wishes her child could grow up innocently, free from the shackles of the racism that she’s already witnessed and experienced.

References

• Mni Sota Makoce Honor Tax

• History and Culture of the Ojibwe Chippewa Tribe

• American Indian Movement

• Manna-hatta Fund

• The Origins of the Phrase “Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps”

• The Dust Bowl

• Huck's Ironic Circle

• Individualism and Opposition to Redistribution in the US: The Cultural Legacy of the Frontier

• There’s No Such Thing as a “Self-Made Man”; see also Bootstrapping Has Always Been A Myth. The New American Dream Proves It

• Alissa Quart’s ‘Bootstrapped: Liberating Ourselves from the American Dream’

• The Role of Complexity Studies in the Emerging “Processual” Worldview

• A Processual Approach to Political Violence

• Time and Process: An Operational Framework for Processual Analysis

• Historical Determinism Revisited

• Social, Political and Cultural Dimensions of Health

• Understanding the Connection Between Political and Social Determinants of Health

• Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory

• Systems Thinking and Race

• Kinship pathways: Nurturing and Sustaining Resilient, Responsible, and Respected Indigenous Evaluators

• The Moral Philosophy of Individualism: Its History and Relationship with Collectivism

• Individualism, Innovation, and Long-Run Growth

• Individualism: A Deeply American Philosophy

• Etymology of individual

• in-di-vid-u-al

• Political Philosophy: Methodology

• Ideologies of the Individual

• What Should Socialism Mean in the 21st Century?

• Manifesto of the Communist Party

• The Interstate age: Damaging Divisions, Created by Design

• Plessy’s Legacy: The Government’s Role in the Development and Perpetuation of Segregated Neighborhoods

• Land Acquisition and Dispossession: Mapping the Homestead Act, 1863-1912

• The Short‑Lived Promise of ‘40 Acres and a Mule’

• Natural Rights

• Individualism vs. Collectivism

• Age of Reason

• The Declaration of Independence Wasn’t Really Complaining about King George

• John Stuart Mill

• Understanding Power through Advocacy, Organizing and Activism

• Labor Movement

• The Five Basic Steps to Organizing a Union

• Direct Action Organizing

• The Right to Strike

• History of Successful Boycotts

• What Makes a Successful Protest?

• The Fight for Rights: Why We Must Defend Strikes, Boycotts, and Protests

• Herbert Hoover “Rugged Individualism” Campaign Speech

• Stock Market Crash of 1929

• From Rugged Individualism to Rugged Cooperation

• Roosevelt and the New Deal

• The Rise of Antislavery Thoughts

• Years of Adventure 1874-1914

• The rise and fall of Andrew Mellon

• The Great Inheritors: How Three Families Shielded Their Fortunes From Taxes for Generations

• Why Social Security Was the Cornerstone of FDR’s New Deal

• Great Society Programs, Definition & LBJ

• The Unusual Ways Western Parents Raise Children

• North American Culture: Undermining Breastfeeding

• This is the Closest Thing We’ve Ever Had to a Hillary Clinton Political Manifesto

• Margaret Thatcher: There’s No Such Thing as Society

• Health Promotion and the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior Continuum

• Social Contract

• Exploring African Relational Ethic of Ubuntu

• Marv Alkin

• Evaluation Roots

• Evaluation Roots: An International Perspective

• Manifest Destiny

• Evaluation Roots: A Wider Perspective of Theorists’ Views and Influences

• Kinnect

• Embedding the Graduate Education Diversity Internship (GEDI) Program Within a Larger System

Music: "Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

Contact us: 

• Website: https://themay13group.net

• Linktree: Vidhya: https://linktr.ee/dr.vidhyashankerphd 

• LinkedIn: 

  • Carolina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela

  • Vidhya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker

Donate! https://the-may-13-group.raiselysite.com