Needlework, Affect and Social Transformation

Needlework, Affect and Social Transformation explores the affectivity – the un/conscious emotive capacities – of practices of needlework in the context of feminist political activism. Through a diverse and wide-ranging set of case studies, the book explores some of the textures that emerge from everyday practices of needlework. It shows how practices of needlework influence people’s sense of self and their relationships with the world. May argues that practices of needlework provide a mode for being with or dwelling in the discomfort and affective tensions that may arise as a result of experiencing such reconfigurations. May offers a nuanced theoretical approach for understanding the political potential and meaning of practices of needlework through developing texture as a dynamic concept, materiality and interpretive framework. She highlights how narrative, affect, and bodily movement shape the meaning of practices of needlework and the types of resistant acts they make possible. From novels by African-American women writers; the US based youth organization the Social Justice Sewing Academy; the Afghan–European embroidery initiative Guldusi; and the Women’s March Washington to the craftivism of the Kudzu Project – each case study innovatively demonstrates how practices of needlework can be turned into vehicles for individual and collective meaning-making with a range of socio-political implications. As a result, the book makes a salient case for recognising the importance of affect to the complex interplay of personal and social transformation.