title: Complicating Counterspaces: Intersectionality and the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival.
abstract: The counterspaces framework articulated by Case and Hunter (2012), follows from community psychology's long-standing interest in the potential for settings to promote well-being and liberatory responses to oppression. This framework proposes that certain settings (i.e., "counterspaces") facilitate a specific set of processes that promote the well-being of marginalized groups. We argue that an intersectional analysis is crucial to understand whether and how counterspaces achieve these goals. We draw from literature on safe spaces and present a case study of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (Michfest) to illustrate the value of an intersectional analysis and explore how these processes operate. Based on 20 in-person interviews, 23 responses to an online survey, and ethnographic field notes, we show how Michfest was characterized by a particular intersection of identities at the setting level, and intersectional diversity complicated experiences at the individual level. Moreover, intersectional identities provided opportunities for dialogue and change at the setting level, including the creation of counterspaces within counterspaces. Overall, we demonstrate the need to attend to intersectionality in counterspaces, and more broadly in how we conceptualize settings in community psychology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA. emcconne@depaul.edu.
authors.forename: Elizabeth A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: McConnell
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Nathan R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Todd
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Charlynn
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Odahl-Ruan
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, Rush University, Chicago, IL, USA.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shattell
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003256:Community Participation; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006693:Holidays; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D009146:Music; D011209:Power, Psychological; D011593:Psychology, Social; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012931:Social Environment; D062487:Social Marginalization / Q000523:psychology*; D058992:Social Participation; D066269:Social Theory; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
keywords: Counterspaces; Intersectionality; Oppression; Safe spaces; Settings