Fantasies and Faustian Pacts in Social Justice Work: How do we negotiate the shadow side of nonprofit/public sector labour?
Happy New Year to all of you! I hope the coming year brings new energy and thinking to your organizational lives. This newsletter raises questions about the fantasies we bring to organizational life, the role that they play in shaping our approach to our work and the questions that we might wish to ask.
Fantasy in Organizational Life
summarized by Tanya Lewis
The question of what lies below the surface of what we bring to organizational life remains important for understanding what happens in our daily work life. Lacan’s conceptualization of fantasy helps us think about how we engage with the world around us, the organizations within which we work and the politics we bring to this work. Glynos and Stavrakakis (2008) describe how desire is driven unconsciously by lack: the gap between what we wanted as young children and the limits we inevitably experienced. We unconsciously seek to overcome these limits through what we identify with, what is available to us in order to make sense of the world, ways in which we engage in the world, and how we are taken up by it. In this work to rectify the limits we experience in the pursuit of pleasure, we may split between being overly idealizing of the objects of our desire or resist and reject.
Fantasies about what we are doing and what we might achieve through our work hold data about our unconscious desires and the limits we seek to overcome. Because limits are always present, our desires can never be fully realized. How do we work with the inevitable frustration and disillusionment? Simultaneously, how do we foster moments of enjoyment and feelings of solidarity with others in the work that we do?
What can we learn by facing the resistances; defensiveness and disavowals present within the fantasies that we and others bring to the workplace? What might they tell us about the unacknowledged desires and ideals that may be driving our attempts to work with the realities with which we are faced? What are the tools that we need to put into place to help us with this work so that we are not always in the grip of Faustian pacts.
I would like to continue this line of thinking with you and I would be happy to hear your thoughts.
Reference: Glynos, Jason; Stavrakakis, Yannis (2008) Lacan and Political Subjectivity: Fantasy and Enjoyment in Psychoanalysis and Political Theory. Subjectivity, September, 2008.
Thinking About the Contradictions in the Philanthropic Sector Social Justice Funding
In September of 2022, Barbara Williams and Anna Turley presented at the NIODA conference (https://www.nioda.org.au) which was focussed on social movements. Their presentation explored the tensions between social movements and philanthropy. The purpose of this piece is to review some of the highlights of that presentation.
Progressive social movements may be based on the inequities within identity politics; or the struggle over social structural inequities, or a combination of the two. The work of social movements is to build consensus and collective action across networks towards common political transformation. They are inherently focussed on the work of making collective change.
Increasingly, the role of government in funding social justice work has been augmented and in some cases eclipsed by funding from wealthy philanthropic individuals. Decision-making in philanthropy is shifting from elected officials who carry some weight of social agreements to that of individuals who may not fully grapple with the fundamental contradictions between generating wealth and advancing social change movements.
But to fund movements poses specific challenges. Similar to much government funding, philanthropy mostly requires funding to flow through legally constituted and registered organizations. These organizations have legal entities with reputational and financial reporting responsibilities. And not surprisingly, these organizational requirements may create tensions between the work of many social movement networks particularly in relation to civil disobedience.
The question that both Anna and Barbara raised was to examine how movement-building organizations manage their legal, reputational and financial responsibilities when the drive for collective change may place these at risk. Their question is also relevant to those working in other nonprofit and public sector organizations who often share these aspirational goals for social justice.
What are the fantasies about the work movement-building organizations are doing that hold these contradictions between the legal and financial requirements of organizations and the needs of those being supported? What language does an organization mobilize that holds these fantasies? How does resistance to role clarity within an organization potentially reveal the fantasies that are at play and their importance for what the organization is attempting to bridge across its work? Finally, are fantasies necessary to sustain the work of organizations, and where are they impeding more effective approaches? These are difficult questions to face. They are also important for grappling with the realities within which organizations committed to the social justice movement work.
Faustian Pacts in the Provision of Equity Rights
by Tanya Lewis
A Faustian pact is a “deal with the devil” designed to obtain knowledge and power.
The idea of a Faustian pact in organizational life is an interesting one. How does the concept of a Faustian pact contribute to our understanding of equity work within organizations? How does it reflect continued efforts to maintain rather than change the status quo? As people engaged in institutional equity work, what fantasies are brought to this work? How might this work be approached differently to create more substantive change?
Some years ago, Philip Boxer talked to me about the Faustian pact I was in with the university in providing academic accommodations for students with disabilities. Through locating the work of academic accommodations within a center rather than changing the assumptions and delivery underlying teaching and learning, the university could predominantly continue its status quo and provide academic accommodation.
On the surface, establishing a unit within an organization that takes on a piece of required work so that the organization can continue on makes sense. The work that needs to be done may be relatively small within a large organization. There may be areas of expertise that are required and possible ways to communicate expert decisions across relevant parts of the organization such as IT, social media and marketing.
This “off to the side” approach to equity work gives lip service to the systemic changes that need to take place within the organization as a whole that would allow individuals to fully and easily participate. The provision of academic accommodation for students with disabilities is a good example of the problems with this approach. Institutions follow the provisions established within the Canadian Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms in which people with disabilities provide confidential medical documentation that demonstrates the need for academic accommodation. This legal requirement to demonstrate the right to accommodation and the confidential nature of medical documentation required people with expertise to understand the nature of the condition and to develop, communicate and facilitate effective accommodations.
Demonstrating the need for accommodation and submitting an individual request for consideration each time that an accommodation is required results in significantly greater work for the individuals involved as well as those who provide the accommodation. Stereotypes of being “less than” or as “not belonging” are reinforced within this approach and have to be addressed over and over again. Negotiating the administrative processes that are necessary to request academic accommodation create additional barriers. Students are required to navigate two administrative systems; the one that all students Teaching and learning environments remain the same as does the assessment of knowledge i.e. what needs to be demonstrated and how it will be assessed.
From my individual perspective, the work also had its Faustian pleasures. I enjoyed having the power to make decisions. The long days of time sensitive requests often ended with the satisfaction of “making happen what needed to happen” in spite of the limited resources, and the obstacles and barriers encountered. In my work fantasy world, I felt like Robin Hood in my efforts to create fairness. There were moments of solidarity with my colleagues. In my frustration, I often clung to the evidence that students with disabilities who obtained a degree had significantly better opportunities for employment than those who didn’t. Given the low employment rates for people with disabilities, I felt that change might happen over the long term.
Other pleasures included interacting with students with a range of disabilities across undergraduate and graduate faculties. I lived in a rich learning environment full of students’ experiences and the range of classroom and practicum environments in which students were learning. As long as I could concentrate on immediate rather than systemic change, there was pleasure in solving the complexity of the problems involved, mediating disputes, in building learning support programs for students and mobilizing bureaucratic systems within the university. The work fit how I had learned to belong by being of service and came with financial security and professional development. Given the daily challenges and the established systems that I was expected to manage, there was little time or tolerance for thinking and working differently. Over time administrative efficiency to manage the numbers became a pressing priority.
As a staff, knowing we were in a Faustian Pact within the university helped us acknowledge the limits within which we worked and the systemic questions with which we were faced. In retrospect, I can see the missed opportunities to have negotiated the work differently. More work directed at supporting accessible teaching practices rather than individual transactions would have had more lasting benefit. Because this change needed academic support in a fairly intractable environment, it would have required a thinking space with people willing to acknowledge and unpack their current fantasies, approach the problem differently and assess the opportunities to broaden the work of creating accessible environments.
What are the fantasies that you and your colleagues mobilize in the workplace? How do they help you carry on with the work? How do they prevent taking a broader approach to the realities at hand?
Report on the 2022 Exploring Difference Conference: How Bodies Live Colonialism
This year ICI’s Exploring Difference Conference explored the themes of how colonialism is lived in the body. In keeping with this theme, there were a number of innovations to the group relations (GR) conference design while maintaining the importance of unconscious processes. The hierarchical structure of the traditional group relations conference (which reflects colonial models of authority) was replaced with a co-leadership model of five individuals who negotiated their roles within the group. This created learning about different forms of holding power and authority and the assumptions we carry about hierarchies. Similarly, many of the members in addition to the co-leadership group moved between taking up roles and being members of the conference. The conference included four movement sessions and grounding exercises to explore how bodies live colonialism and to shift the dominance of talking as the only legitimate form of exploration.
Because of these innovations and the work of holding the importance of unconscious dynamics, the leadership group invited people with group relations experience to attend. 19 people attended the conference. Two additional people withdrew at the last minute due to personal circumstances. One member contracted COVID just prior to the conference but was able to join some of the work through Zoom. Eight of the conference members traveled from international locations including the United States. There was diversity in the membership based on gender, race, ethnicity, age, class and sexual orientation.
The co-leadership model enabled a consideration of how power and authority were exercised in this new GR model; with lots of learning about what is required for people to feel authorized and supported within this leadership structure. Similarly, members worked on how ambivalence operates within groups; how to support belonging among a diverse membership; how time and task reflect colonization and what body movements can teach us about how colonization is embodied. The movement work shifted the polarizing dynamics often present in many group relations conferences providing a variety of ways in which members could interact and learn with one another along with speech. Similarly, the movement between staff and member roles allowed for the nature of our interactions with one another to shift. This created a different kind of exploration with one another.
The next Exploring Difference Conference will be in the spring of 2024 when travel is easier and schedules may not be quite as busy as in the late autumn.
Mark Your Calendars
Consulting to Dilemmas
Saturday, March 4, 2022
10 a.m. – 2 p.m. ET
Consulting to Dilemmas is an opportunity to deepen skills in ‘consulting’ to a community or work-related situation or dilemma with which someone is faced. The workshop will support learning about the usual ways you as a leader, consultant, or team member listen to and support someone’s presenting problem; see what is being held out of awareness and how to stand back and be curious from new vantage points. There will be opportunities to present, consult and observe – and in particular explore what is being presented. Others who are interested in learning an “interpretive stance” – a standing back to ‘see’ what’s going on – will benefit from participating in this workshop. Members should come prepared with a dilemma for which they are seeking consultation/exploration.
No previous group relations experience is required.
Cost: $100.00 + $13.00 HST = $113.00 Canadian
Register here: https://www.eventcreate.com/e/consultingtodilemmas2023
Strange Fruit
Gender – In – Justice: working with the intractability of violence against women*
International Women’s Day Event
March 8, 2023
8 a.m. to noon ET; (1pm – 5pm UK; 3pm-7pm SA)
Exploring the Tensions between Transformation and Activism – A learning event open to all
Drawing on group relations methodologies and open space technologies, we will grapple with the questions of what is happening to women who face ongoing significant violence, which we understand as being experienced in social terms including physical aggression, lack of access to economic, land and education opportunities as well as rights over women’s bodies.
As leaders, consultants, activists, clinicians and researchers we will have the opportunity to explore various questions that may include:
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What is our responsibility to others in the wider world?
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How do we understand the meanings associated with gender and the systems that perpetuate engendered subjugation?
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What is happening to women in our work?
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What is our responsibility to others in the wider world?
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How do we understand the meanings associated with gender and the systems which perpetuate engendered subjugation?
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Our shared responsibilities to understand and to stand against the ongoing violence towards women globally
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How we experience our engendering
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Our own resistances to and complicities within gendered systems
Thinking about the gendered nature of violence may help us join with the resistance to violence against women.
Please click here for more information and to register: https://www.eventcreate.com/e/gender-in-justice
* the term women (or woman) refers to any women identifying women
ICI Practitioner Development
ICI is planning practitioner training in March, 2023. If you have not taken part in this training and would like to know more about the practitioner development program, please contact tlewis@bureaukensington.com.
Up-Coming Conferences
Turbulent Transitions: Living Through a Time of Crisis
March 3rd-5th 2023 over Zoom
OPUS, set up in 1975, exists to enable us to use our authority better as citizens. We do this by examining the conscious and unconscious processes going on in society, of which we are a part, and which, by our actions or inaction we help to generate. This awareness should enable us each to be more acute in our social interventions.
This three-day conference comprises two days which are largely experiential and one day in which you are invited to share the concepts and theoretical ideas you are working on.
For more information on OPUS, please visit their website: www.opus.org.uk/?doing_wp_cron=1673031805.1130900382995605468750
Social Defenses in 21st Century Organizations
How can we understand the emerging social systems using a psychoanalytic lens?
February 24th 2023, 1:30-3:00PM ET over Zoom
James Krantz, Ph.D. is a leading voice in the areas of organizational change, leadership, and the design of work for high performance. Prior to founding WorkLab, Jim worked as a consultant with the Wharton School’s Center for Applied Research and the Tavistock Institute in London. He has held faculty appointments at Wharton and Yale, and has taught in numerous other settings including INSEAD, McKinsey’s Center Asian Leadership, and Columbia University. In addition, he served as Assistant Director of Wharton’s Leadership Program. An Honorary Member of IPTAR, Jim helped launch what is now The Gould Center.
‘Speaking Out and Speaking Up’ in Fugitive Spaces- Fascism Resurgence, Logics of Dehumanization and Anti-Colonial Praxis
November 9-11, 2023
Work is already under way for the CIARS 2023 conference, and we are delighted to share that this conference will be held in person at OISE, University of Toronto.
The portal to submit abstracts is open now! Visit our new website (https://utoronto.us17.list-manage.com/track/click?u=5828bea12e67b5174dd844204&id=6db1b2ff6d&e=700958e623) to join the conversation, and learn more about the conference including, sub-themes, plenaries, and submission guidelines: www.decolonizingconference.ca. We welcome submissions from individuals, groups, students, and artists, and encourage the representation of voices and experiences from around the world. Be sure to visit us again at a later date to get more information about Keynote and Plenary Speakers, Attendee Registration, and Travel Info.
We strive to make this a low barrier event by keeping our cost of attendance low, offering childcare, and guaranteeing consideration of a variety of needs, including those related to accessibility. All campus buildings used are wheelchair accessible, and ASL interpreters will be on-site for portions of the event. If you have further questions or concerns, please feel free to Contact Us.
Networks of Desire 2: A Group Relations Training Conference
20-22 & 27-28 January 2023 over Zoom
Please join us for Networks of Desire 2: A Group Relations Training Conference, sponsored by Group Relations International, The Eco-Leadership Institute, and the Washington-Baltimore Center Leroy Wells School. Scholarships are available.