Overcoming Epistemic Violence and Empowering Marginalised Groups in France: Assessing the Impact of Social Movement Practices

Following the murder of Adama Traoré in 2016 and George Floyd in 2020, anti-racist mass protests have risen exponentially in France, England, and beyond (Goldman 2020). Anti-racist mobilisation against the marginalisation of racialised groups has a long and enduring history (Beaman 2021). In England and France, hegemonic narratives relegate the epistemic forces of racialised groups through colour-blind racism and white racial framing in idiosyncratic ways (Léonard 2014).

For some scholars, social movements are the antidote as they constitute empowering sites of political action (Cox 2018). However, which types of social movements are best placed to empower marginalised groups continues to be hotly contested (Smith 2009). Participation alone in social movements is insufficient for empowerment.

This is because differential access to power can lead to the silencing and marginalisation of voices by those who occupy more dominant positions (Lupia & Norton 2017).

This thesis contends that these social movements can be empowering insofar as they are disrupting ensconced norms and the terms of discourse by "reversing, displacing and seizing the apparatus of value-coding" (Spivak 2004, 228). The research project assesses the capacity for social movements' radical democratic practices to redress the disempowerment of marginalised groups.

This is important as radical democracy yields critical insights into the recuperation of forms of knowledge which have "been rendered invisible or unthinkable" (Conway & Singh 2011, 700). By "think[ing] theory through the political praxis of subaltern groups" (Escobar 2004, 217), this thesis enlarges the purview of possibilities for overcoming the disempowerment of marginalised groups in England and France.

The alternative theoretical framework advanced by this thesis builds upon the productive insights of the existing literature by foregrounding how the coloniality of power, embodied experiences, and (dis)empowerment are deeply intertwined. This analysis is critical as "the inclusion and exclusion of individuals or groups to positions of power is often based upon perceived 'difference'" (Ali et al. 2000, 133).

These processes of exclusion are especially prominent in deliberative arenas since "assumptions of race, culture or gender become bound up in the power dynamics of speech" (Fierke & Jabri 2019, 10). This thesis thus makes explicit the ways in which power manifests in social movements by unveiling those who are silenced. This involves recognising "subaltern spaces of colonial difference" as pre-eminent sites of knowledge production (Conway & Singh 2011, 704) which intersect with the subjects' corporeality.

This thesis will generate original primary data assessing the capacity of anti-racist social movements' radical democratic practices to empower marginalised groups and overcome epistemic violence in England and France. This will be examined through an ethnographic direct participative study of two social movements, semi-structured circular interviews with social movement participants (individually and in focus groups), and a re-analysis of secondary data.

The research will broaden extra-academic engagement by identifying strategic partnerships between policymakers and activists, promoting effective engagement strategies, and providing advocacy trainings on inclusivity and representation. Through the Participatory Action Research approach, the researcher will develop enduring partnerships with the groups studied, creating opportunities for participants to collaborate in creative outputs shared with the wider public as part of awareness campaigns and journalistic dissemination.