The Politics of Exhaustion

Drawing on our comparative research project conducted in six European cities, this article proposes a tentative politics of exhaustion as a way to understand the promise and perils of women of colour activists’ solidarity work. Through an examination of how women of colour activists strategise, organise and mobilise, we demonstrate the political and psychological impact of exhaustion. To declare exhaustion, we argue, is to hail the equally exhausted to build solidarity. Understanding the politics of exhaustion can help shed light on the creative practices of women of colour activists in European cities today, as well as highlight the structural processes that demand activists’ exhaustion.