“Pull yourself together” – The need for a collective awareness of rest and crip time in political activism using the example of a community radio station in Germany – Barbara Neukirchinger

Author: Barbara Neukirchinger

Abstract: Urban community activism has often dealt with the struggle for or the preservation of open spaces. The aim was to have a material as well as an immaterial space that was not determined by commercialisation or criteria of usefulness and exploitability and that was open to the community.

Politically motivated community radio in urban spaces followed a similar motivation. On the hand it aimed to provide a counter-public to mass media information, on the other hand – in the sense of taking back control of the means of production – it was also about involving all radio broadcasters in decision-making and in all areas of organising and running the radio station.

In the context of disability activism this had several implications. Activist community radio had the opportunity to open up spaces for forms of radio broadcasting that would have not been possible  on formalised radio broadcasting. It allowed for experimentation, “deviant” or less streamlined forms of radio design and the inclusion of contributors who would otherwise have been excluded from making radio. At the same time community radio was not detached from the society in which it was active and could also reproduce exclusionary mechanisms and structures despite the often noble political demands. Community radio had also been affected by internalised ableism and the encounter with external barriers that fully or partially excluded disabled or chronically ill people from participation in radio broadcasting. The accommodation of rest or of the needs of impairment or chronic illness could also pose a challenge in this context.

From the perspective of a former activist and current academic researcher, who was active in German community radio in Hamburg, this presentation wants to critically discuss the potential of community radio for disability activism, but also take a look at its downsides and shortcomings. Important theoretical points of reference for the presentation will be the critique of capitalist exploitability logic, subjectivation, disability studies and radio theory.

Author bio: Preferred pronouns she/they
Barbara Neukirchinger is originally from South Germany. She was a member of a community radio station in Hamburg for 10 years where she was involved as a media activist and editor for several information and educational radio programmes. Barbara moved from Hamburg to the UK in 2013 and carried out a PhD in Sociology at Bangor University. She has just been awarded a PhD this year and her thesis is on the intersection of disability and gender from a social theory perspective.