“Sneaking in” and “carving out” as reparative praxis
Navigating conditional solidarity at media industry events to catalyze industry transformation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 23019448 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Brad Limov (0000-0003-4712-4919, School of Journalism and Media, Moody College of Communication, University of Texas at Austin , Austin, TX, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-24 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Communication Culture and Critique (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1753-9137 • E-ISSN: 1753-9129 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/ccc/tcag020 |
| OpenAlex | W7162247257 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 22 |
South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual tech, media, and music megaevent in Austin, Texas, that curates a future-focused program around themes of convergence, innovation, inspiration, and impact. This article examines how such media industry events catalyze resistant and reparative communicative practices when social justice movements gain traction in popular discourse at critical junctures like the one that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on three years of ethnography and 17 interviews, I analyze how SXSW participants navigate “conditional solidarity”—a pervasive norm where justice commitments under progressive neoliberalism remain contingent on elite values and interests while co-opting movement symbols to maintain relations of power. At events like SXSW, marginalized communities tactically “sneak in” resistant discourses and “carve out” alternative spaces for worldmaking. Ultimately, this study proposes a framework for reparative praxis that leverages discursive openings and opportunities for participation within dominant industry spaces when they arise.
Elite · Ethnography · Governmentality · Neoliberalism (international relations) · Norm (philosophy) · Praxis · Social justice · Social media · Social movement · Solidarity · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Music History and Culture
Changing Course in Latin America
Film Festivals
From Progressive Neoliberalism to Trump – and Beyond
Neoliberalism, Corporate Culture, and the Promise of Higher Education
In the Time of Plastic Representation
Media Events
Cinematic Activism
Elite Capture
Media reconstruction and reparative media
Evoking Empathy or Enacting Solidarity with Marginalized Communities? A Case Study of Journalistic Humanizing Techniques in the San Francisco Homeless Project
Streaming video and diasporic worldmaking
The black neoliberal aesthetic
The Hacker Conference
Critical Media Industry Studies
Platforming Intersectionality
Access
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |