The Household Model Of Emancipatory Politics

The household model of political organizing constitutes one viable empowerment strategy for marginalized communities. Like every form of emancipatory politics, it presupposes an existence of a political agent or a political subject. While most political frameworks tend to treat the abstract individual as such a political agent, the household model of political organization emphasizes the perspective of the household. Thus, unlike political theories that revolve around the idea of abstract State, the household model concerns the quotidian realm of daily affairs. In particular, it relies on the idea of civil society as a fertile ground for linking politics and personal issues. Thus, appealing to the household as a source of emancipatory agency, …show more content…
In this respect, the household model of community organizing teaches that what hitherto seemed impossible may effectively be within one’s reach. In other words, through an active participation in community organization, individuals and households discover that they have the power to make an impact on policies relevant to the Latino community. This can happen through active participation in the electoral process, but also through involvement in educational programs, grassroots political organization, and other forms of activism. Again, education becomes important here as it aims to enable households discover emancipatory potential in their everyday struggle for survival. In the context of civil rights movements, activists frequently staged “consciousness raising” sessions that aimed to not only convey practical strategies for survival, but also help participants affirm their political potency and their ability to make an impact on the …show more content…
In this respect, associative membership again complements the household model, which focuses on civil society as a site of emancipatory struggle. The quotidian level of social existence in a civil society, in turn, concerns modes of belonging to particular communities. At this level, community organizers have to negotiate complex patterns of interactions between Latinos and non-Latinos, on the one hand, and diverse members of Latino community, on the other hand. For instance, Latino activists may seek to forge strategic alliances with African-American activists in a given community in a concerted effort to combat institutional racism and police brutality. At the same time, Latino activists have to confront multiple differences within the Latino community itself. Since the notion of ‘Latino identity’ does not correspond to any particular racial category, any given Latino community is bound to be characterized by diversity and heterogeneity. On the one hand, these differences have a racial character and refer to distinctions between black Latinos, white Latinos, Asian Latinos, and so on. On the other hand, there exist cultural differences among Latinos whose ancestors have different countries of origin. In this regard, community organizers have the difficult task of negotiating these differences and overcoming conflicts internal to