Toolbox: Safer spaces policies

Season 2 episode 9 of the Resist + Renew podcast, where we talk about safer spaces policies, as a tool that groups use for a variety of reasons. 'Safer spaces policies can create a void that people will then fill with punitive approaches to difficulty, difference and conflict' Show notes, links After a callout for safer spaces agreements, a few groups kindly offered to have their agreements shared, to give you some examples: AFem2014 policy + explainer + glossary (though the event wasn't without issues: see this write-up and another write-up) SWARM conference in 2019 Sisters Uncut Young FOE Scotland has a longer safer spaces agreement,  a more concise policy, and they will also sometimes make group agreements or smaller policies built on these too for specific events Iconiq Academy’s braver spaces agreement A few other resources that we mentioned in the episode: Mainstreams and margins The distinction between calling in and calling out Perennial resources: our sister facilitation collective Navigate have a conflict facilitation booklet (from back when they were called Seeds For Change Oxford). See our "What is facilitation?" podcast episode page for more general facilitation resources. We now have a Patreon! Please help keep the podcast going, at patreon.com/resistrenew. If not, there's always the classic ways to support: like, share, and subscribe! Transcript ALI This is Resist Renew, KATHERINE the UK based podcast about social movements, SAMI what we're fighting for, why and how it all happens. ALI The hosts of the show are KATHERINE Me, Kat. SAMI Me, Sami, ALI and me, Ali. SAMI I'm recording this now, baby! ALI Shit, it's a podcast! KATHERINE Welcome to today's episode of the toolbox, we're going to be looking at the safer spaces policies today. This is a tool that groups can create: we're going to be finding out what they are, talking about the pros and cons of using a safer spaces policy and sharing our top take-aways. Sami, do you want to tell us a little bit about what safer spaces policies are? SAMI I would love to Katherine! So I think safer spaces policies are often some kind of like written document or some kind of agreement. Often around the topic of like resisting societal oppressions, and they will name like, often the beliefs of like a group or a space and some intentions to resist these societal impressions. And sometimes mentioning what they think those versions of societal oppression are, for clarity, that aren't going to be like, welcome in the space in whatever way they mean. And sometimes they will include some bit about what they'll do to like, actually resist the societal oppressions. Not always. And I guess maybe there's a distinction to make here between like something that is like more of a policy, which is like, ‘this is what we think and blah, blah, blah,’ and maybe more something that's like a process, which is like, ‘we’ll actually do this or handle these situations in this way.’ So that's like one distinction to draw out now. Ali, do you wanna nuance that up? ALI Oh, God, pressure. So safer spaces. It's a bit of a weird term if you haven't been around it much. So a bit of background as to why it's called that. Previously, people used to talk about creating “safe spaces,” as in places that people will feel comfortable to share things and they won't get a deal with oppression and stuff. But because that's not possible, because we live in the real world, we try and mitigate against oppressions, rather than making them completely safe. So safer. There are variations: some people have come up with the term braver spaces, which is, again, about showing up and dealing with things as they arise rather than creating safety. So a bit about why we are talking about safer spaces, safer spaces policy in a season about conflict. That's because often conflicts within groups relate to both societal oppression...