What is Awareness?
Awareness is a special concept which evolved in german speaking areas since 2007 based on different political fights like feminist and black liberation movements. It stands for establishing and maintaining a considerate, responsible, and supportive way of interacting with each other. Spaces should be created that empower the self-determination of various communities - partisan and supportive. Through awareness work, we learn together to respect everyone's boundaries and to confront discrimination and violence. And we learn how to support people who have to go through discriminatory experiences.
Furthermore, the approaches and practices of the Transformative Justice and Community Accountability movements from the USA have influenced awareness work in Germany. Women and LGBTIQ* of Color developed their own community-based solutions against discrimination and violence. Due to racist structures in the police and state authority, BIPoC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) could not rely on these institutions. Addressing violence and safety should be established within the communities. Awareness was and often is understood in Germany as anti-sexist practice. However, it has been shown that various forms of discrimination and their intersections must be included.
Awareness is a culture and attitude of collective responsibility
Awareness is an attitude
Even though awareness is becoming increasingly known to a wider public through awareness teams at events – awareness is so much more. For us, the primary focus is an attitude: recognizing and wanting to change structural power asymmetries and power structures. At the same time, awareness is a continuous process of learning and unlearning that is never complete. What matters to us is trying and establishing a culture of collective responsibility.
Focusing on those affected is the key
We are used to everything revolving around the people perpetrating violence – whether in the justice system, the media, or in all of our reactions when violence and discrimination occur. We want to break this, because we believe that people affected by violence and discrimination belong in focus! Supporting them in crisis and after incidents makes a real difference – and changes quite a lot. We want to accompany, represent, and promote this shift in perspective!
What does awareness look like in practice?
How awareness ultimately looks in practice is very different. Awareness is now increasingly known to the wider public through awareness teams at events. However, awareness is a lot more, and an awareness team alone is by no means a good awareness concept. How awareness can be incorporated and look in your context is a process of jointly discovering, which we'd like to start with you in workshops and consultations. Here are some thoughts on what awareness is and can be for us:
Awareness is an attitude that recognizes and wants to break power structures
Awareness is the attempt to do something against violence and discrimination in your own event or group structures
Awareness is a process that is never completed
Awareness is feminist solidarity
Awareness is concrete support of those affected, putting them in focus!
Awareness has different levels: The structural level (awareness concept) and the support level (among others but not only: awareness team)
Awareness wants to fight for participation opportunities for marginalized groups
Awareness is not a service but a holistic view of your own structures
The best awareness team is a strong community that stands up for each other, speaks out, and takes collective responsibility for each other
Awareness is prevention, intervention, and transformation
Awareness wants to fundamentally change something