‘Stop the monster, build the marvel’: movement vulnerability, youth organizing and abolitionist praxis in late liberal San Francisco

Abstract

ABSTRACT Based on a larger ethnographic project in San Francisco, this essay illustrates the housing justice work of youth participants in San Francisco’s Mission Roots youth organizing program. I introduce the concept of movement vulnerability to describe how developing ideology and political vision was central to their activism. This article draws from abolitionist political thoughtto highlight the carceral dimensions of displacement and gentrification in San Francisco. More importantly, an abolitionist lens allows us to recognize the creative and visionary dimensions of Mission Roots youth organizers’ work. Furthermore, this article offers a reminder to youth studies and education scholars that organizing is a method of transforming material conditions and pursuing social justice projects, rather than a mere ‘intervention’ to promote conventional notions of academic and youth development.