The May 13 Group PODCAST

In this episode, hosts Carolina and Vidhya reflect on our first year building a solidarity economy through this podcast. We connect recent topics—collective knowledge-making, individualism, and the idea of an economy—to each other, evaluation, accountability, and resource distribution. We note the years of work ahead, as today's socio-political situation results from decades of deliberate effort, not recent elections. Grateful for your feedback, we commit to being accessible to everyone fighting within the nonprofit industrial complex.⁠⁠⁠Episode 9 TRANSCRIPT⁠⁠NotesCOMING SOON!ReferencesCOMING SOON!Music“Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)⁠ ⁠⁠Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0⁠⁠⁠Contact us Website:⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠https://themay13group.net⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn:Carolina: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠⁠⁠⁠Nayantara: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/nayantara-premakumar⁠Vidhya: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker⁠⁠⁠⁠Donate to our podcast!⁠⁠

In this episode, Carolina and Vidhya engage in dialogue with Justin Laing of Hillombo Consulting to understand the idea of an economy, which is foundational to building a solidarity economy. We delve into the way knowledge—or perhaps narrative—is produced within racial and gendered capitalism and the role evaluation plays for the owning and ruling class. We close with an invitation to imagine what knowledge work could look like, and what individual roles we each may play, in alternative economic structures.If you would like to learn more about Justin, he can be found at www.hillombo.net,  @hillombo on Instagram, and using Episode 8 Transcript⁠COMING SOON!NotesCOMING SOON!ReferencesCOMING SOON!Music"Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) ⁠⁠⁠Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0⁠⁠⁠Contact UsWebsite: ⁠https://themay13group.net⁠⁠⁠⁠Carolina: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠⁠⁠⁠Nayantara: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/nayantara-premakumar⁠Vidhya: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker⁠⁠⁠ Donate to our podcast! ⁠https://the-may-13-group.raiselysite.com⁠

SummaryCarolina and Vidhya reflect on individualism and interrogate how it shows up in our personal lives and is built into our work—including NPIC and evaluation's training, practice, and literature as well as existing field-building and change efforts.⁠⁠Episode 7 TRANSCRIPTNotes02:17 “Utopia” asperceived or portrayed by dominating forces11:55 Concentric circles still center the individual and nuclear family, unlike the more web-like nature of many kinship structures around the world, including South Asia and West Africa.21:45 Others may counter that democratic governance structures had existed among peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Asia before the European Enlightenment. See more⁠here⁠.29:22 The programs that Roosevelt and Johnson instituted were systematically eroded throughout the 1980s as “personal responsibility” replaced “rugged individualism.” See morehere.38:36 The setup is that colonial and capitalist destruction of our lands, economies, and social structures leads us to seek opportunities to fulfill our dreams—or simply survive—elsewhere. See morehere.41:37 The artist did not want to ruin her child's innocence—it was an act of resistance and demonstration of sovereignty to have her child grow up in a way that was not defined by colonization and racism. See morehere.ResourcesThe Origins of “Pull Yourself Up By Your Bootstraps”The Dust BowlHuck's Ironic CircleIndividualism and Opposition to Redistribution in the USThere's No Such Thing as a “Self-Made Man”BootstrappedThe Role of Complexity Studies in the Emerging “Processual” WorldviewA Processual Approach to Political ViolenceTime and ProcessHistorical Determinism RevisitedSocial, Political and Cultural Dimensions of HealthUnderstanding the Connection Between Political and Social Determinants of HealthBronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems TheorySystems Thinking and RaceKinship pathways: Nurturing and Sustaining Resilient, Responsible, and Respected Indigenous EvaluatorsThe Moral Philosophy of IndividualismIndividualism, Innovation, and Long-Run GrowthIndividualism: A Deeply American PhilosophyPolitical PhilosophyIdeologies of the IndividualDefining SocialismCommunist ManifestoThe Interstate agePlessy's LegacyLand Acquisition and DispossessionThe Short‑Lived Promise of ‘40 Acres and a Mule'Natural RightsIndividualism vs CollectivismAge of ReasonThe Declaration of IndependenceJohn Stuart MillUnderstanding Power through Advocacy, Organizing, and ActivismLabor MovementThe 5 Basic Steps to Organizing a UnionDirect Action OrganizingThe Right to StrikeHistory of Successful BoycottsWhat Makes a Successful Protest?The Fight for RightsHerbert Hoover SpeechStock Market Crash of 1929From Rugged Individualism to Rugged CooperationRoosevelt and the New DealThe Rise of Antislavery ThoughtsYears of Adventure 1874-1914The rise and fall of Andrew MellonHow Three Families Shielded their Fortunes from Taxes for GenerationsWhy Social Security was the Cornerstone of FDR's New DealGreat Society Programs, Definition & LBJThe Unusual Ways Western Parents Raise ChildrenNorth American Culture: Undermining BreastfeedingThis is the Closest Thing We've Ever Had to a Hillary Clinton Political ManifestoMargaret ThatcherHealth Promotion and the Knowledge-Attitude-Behavior ContinuumSocial ContractExploring African Relational Ethic of UbuntuMarv AlkinEvaluation RootsEvaluation Roots: An International PerspectiveManifest DestinyEvaluation Roots: A Wider Perspective of Theorists' Views and InfluencesKinnectEmbedding the Graduate Education Diversity Internship Program Within a Larger SystemMusic“Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) ⁠⁠Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0⁠⁠Contact:⁠⁠https://themay13group.net⁠⁠⁠Carolina:https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠⁠⁠Vidhya:https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker⁠⁠Donate!https://the-may-13-group.raiselysite.com

Summary In this episode, we discuss “The Power of Perspective: Generations of Evaluators Generating Change,” an interactive journey map featured at the 2022 American Evaluation Association conference. Rooted in popular education and critical pedagogy, it highlighted the suppression of critical voices in evaluation and connected participants' lives to a lineage of resistance within the field. We discuss its development, installation, and reception, along with future plans, including digital platforms, workshops, university curricula, and ‘zines. Efforts to enhance accessibility, including language and disability justice, are part of the ongoing collaboration's dreams. ⁠⁠Episode 6 transcript⁠ Notes COMING SOON! References COMING SOON! Music “Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) ⁠⁠Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0⁠⁠ Contact us  Website:⁠⁠ https://themay13group.net⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: Carolina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠⁠⁠ Nayantara: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nayantara-premakumar Vidhya: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker⁠⁠

Summary In this episode, thought partner and podcast producer Nayantara Premakumar joins hosts Carolina and Vidhya to reflect and update listeners on our retreat and recent milestones. We share our struggles resisting racial/gendered capitalism through cooperative, decentralized, and transparent governance and ownership structures. This includes a discussion of fiscal sponsorship and technocratic tools for decision-making. We also highlight upcoming changes to the podcast, including efforts to tie together our personal, professional, and political analyses; to acknowledge the lands we've inhabited; and to explicitly prompt reflection and action. ⁠⁠Episode 5 transcript⁠ Notes 01:30: It was a post on NPOCunicorns | People of Color Nonprofit Professionals, not a Facebook ad 17:21: Is Fiscal Sponsorship Right for You? gets at some of our hesitation. See more on The May 13 Group PODCAST webpage. 21:03: While Caro took the lead on this effort, the list referred to here was actually compiled by the New Economy Coalition's Solidarity Economy Funding Library, which we think we became aware of through the Open Collective. Open Collective allows groups to raise and distribute money in a transparent, decentralized way. See more on the PODCAST webpage. 29:12: “Society at large” is meant to suggest everyday members of society who may not directly participate in the funded and evaluated programs—for example, will they benefit from reduced crime, etc. It is meant to drive a wedge between them and the underclass who do directly participate in funded and evaluated programs. See more on the webpage. 30:24: This understanding does not reflect the most recent research, such as The origins of SWOT analysis | ScienceDirect, which suggests that SWOT was developed by industries that profit by serving the U.S. military's imperial interests and the business model of never-ending war, but it was not necessarily developed by military institutions. It was, however, uncritically adopted by nonprofit organizations despite the nature and ostensible purpose of their work being entirely different. Of course, military responses do have their place (e.g., Black Panthers, Zapatista). 39:09: The expansion is not exactly exponential in that it does not reflect the change between 3 to the 4th power and 3 to the 3rd power. But the expansion is not linear because the increment of growth is not static or consistent—it continually increases. References ChainLink Studios SORA Podcast Learn about Vu Le and Community-Centric Fundraising Nonprofit Industrial Complex 101: A primer on how it upholds inequity and flattens resistance Exploitation | Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Marx's Theory of Alienation | Richard Wolff on Economic Update; also see What Is Alienation? | Socialism 101 The Buffer Zone with Paul Kivel; also see Social Service or Social Change? | Paul Kivel and the book review The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Behind the Non-Profit Industrial Complex Dylan Rodríguez (He/Him) Strategy as engagement: What organization strategy can learn from military strategy | Science Direct New Economy Coalition A Historical Overview of Philanthropy, Voluntary Associations, and Nonprofit Organizations in the United States, 1600-2000 Beware the tyranny of structurelessness; see the original article, The Tyranny of Stuctureless Robert's Rules of Order; see also Roberta's Rules Basic concepts and principles | Sociocracy for All Lean Coffee The Fibonacci Sequence: Nature's Code; see also Golden Ratio for Art Beginners Pythagorean Theorem The May 13 Group PODCAST Episode 1: Who are we? Active, acute, overt physical genocide as distinct from—but related to—seemingly passive, chronic, and covert structural genocide Music “Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) ⁠⁠Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0⁠⁠ Contact us  Website:⁠⁠ https://themay13group.net⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn Carolina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠⁠⁠ Vidhya: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker⁠⁠

We're going to be taking a break this month, but we'll be back in October. In the meantime, you can stay connected with us on our website themay13group.net.

Summary In this episode, Sarah Stachowiak joins Carolina and Vidhya in reflecting transparently on our financial relationship. How does the owning class's control over manufacturing processes and products show up in the knowledge economy and the evaluation of public and nonprofit/ nongovernmental programs? What does it mean for the “raw material” (data about/ from program participants)? For the “independence” of knowledge workers, who market ourselves in terms of how much more value we produce for the people who pay for our goods and services? Can we think of financial exchange differently? How could we organize accountability in knowledge work horizontally across class status—not necessarily around shared experiences of oppression, but rather around shared resistance against it? ⁠⁠Episode 4 transcript⁠ Notes 1:30: In solidarity with the Duwamish, we lift up this petition for federal recognition as well as their reparations program, Real Rent 6:47: The Critical Educators for Social Justice Special Interest Group (SIG) made is no longer available online. Read more here. 8:47: AEA's statement is no longer available online but reprinted here 10:12: It was more like 6 weeks later, not 6 months later that the Advocacy & Policy Change TIG issued a statement 11:35: The only other statement that we are aware of AEA having made was issued in 2003. Read more here. 33:11: Read more about “kinder and gentler” here and here 35:29: The financial benefits are explained here References ORS Impact Who Are We? What is anthropology? Making Ends Meet Kathryn Edin⁠ ⁠Laura Lein⁠ Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act The welfare queen myth shapes who we believe is deserving and fully human, and who is not EvalTalk AEA APC TIG George Zimmerman American Educational Research Association (AERA) Critical Educators for Social Justice “Special Interest Group” (SIG) At‐risk programs: Evaluation and critical inquiry White nationalism appears to be connected ideologically to the growing Christian nationalism movement American Evaluation Association Remembering the El Paso massacre that targeted Latinos Multiethnic Issues in Evaluation (MIE) Topical Interest Group (TIG) APC Evaluators Actions to Undo Racism and White Supremacy in our Field Jared Raynor Robin Kane Zsuzsanna Lippai Anne Giennap Pledge of Refusal to Profit Causal Pathways On Capitalism's Emotional Logics White Women's Power in Nonprofits Toward an Understanding of Founder's Syndrome Yvonne Belanger Solidarity Is Not a Market Exchange The Price of Civil Rights: Black Lives, White Funding, and Movement Capture Philanthropy & Movement Capture What is General Operating Support and Why is it Important? Hindolo Pokawa What Is A Co-op? Marxism and Worker Cooperatives Contradictions of Capitalism and Their Ideological Counterparts The New Politics of Ownership Identity Politics and Elite Capture The Curious Case of Self-Exploitation The fantasy of employability and the ironic struggle for self-exploitation Social Stratification Yes, I Said "National Liberation" Purity politics in compromised times From allies to comrades Why join the Intro to Decolonial Sustainability course from Possible Futures Colonialism, Coloniality and Settler Colonialism Decolonization of Asia and Africa, 1945–1960 Liberalism and the Idea of Toleration Neoliberalism Gramsci and hegemony Possible Futures How corporate “sustainability” evolves into hyper-colonial “regeneration” Reparations as a Transitional Justice Mechanism From Allies to Co-Conspirators The Corporate War Against Higher Education The Emotional Logic of Capitalism A Theory of Commodification Music “Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) ⁠⁠Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0⁠⁠ Contact us  Website:⁠⁠ https://themay13group.net⁠⁠⁠ LinkedIn: Carolina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠⁠⁠ Vidhya: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker⁠⁠

In this episode, Carolina and Vidhya reflect on the tension among learning from the past, meeting immediate needs in the present, and both imagining and building a better future. We discuss evaluation's origins as a tool for capital and grapple with our status as members of the professional/ managerial class. Our training and current positionality find uncertainty “risky.” Whose interests do we ultimately serve? Could a solidarity economy offer evaluators a safety net or better fallback position from which to make collective demands—by organizing ourselves or joining existing movements that serve the working class? Episode transcript HERE Music: "Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Contact us:  Website: https://themay13group.net/  Linktree: Vidhya: https://linktr.ee/dr.vidhyashankerphd  LinkedIn:  Carolina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela/  Vidhya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker/ 

Summary In this episode, hosts Carolina De La Rosa Mateo and Vidhya Shanker ask, “why evaluation?” We wonder if evaluation can be a site of resistance against racial/gendered capitalism, when capital developed evaluation to support its interests and continues to control the means and ends of knowledge production. Can evaluators renounce capitalism and positivism to organize against exploitation alongside the working class? Can we refuse to take EEI, DEI, CRE, GEDI, CRT, etc. for granted and change the structure of the knowledge economy? Episode 2 transcript Notes 19:45: Access to the written word provides an advantage only in hierarchical systems that devalue oral traditions and non-written languages and knowledge to justify the displacement of entire bodies of knowledge and ways of knowing and the corresponding domination of entire peoples who are portrayed as primitive or unfit to govern themselves 20:30: (Vidhya's elaboration) Tamil language and culture predate Sanskrit and what people now call Hinduism. But the language that brahmins typically claim is Sanskrit. Though no longer spoken, Sanskrit is still used within Hindu hegemony in much the same way that Latin and Greek are used within European hegemony: to provide authority and legitimacy to specific ideas and practices and to discredit others. 23:15: The only time that there is not an adversarial relationship between workers and management is when workers are management, as in self-governed cooperatives 47:06: There is also ⁠the stereotype⁠ that Asians only like numbers—⁠cultivated largely through the 1965 Immigration Act⁠ 47:47: While this happened in 2020, Vidhya meant the 2016 elections References Rodríguez, D. (2016). ⁠The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex⁠. Scholar and Feminist Online—Navigating Neoliberalism in the Academy, Nonprofits, and Beyond, 13.2. ⁠Seizing the Means of Knowledge Production⁠ (6,000-word blog entry) ⁠How Environmentalism was Separated from Class Politics⁠ (60-min video of a Jacobin talk by Matt Huber) ⁠The Professional-Managerial Class⁠ (2-hr video of a Jacobin talk with ⁠Catherine Liu⁠) ⁠The Dialectic of Enlightenment⁠ (25-min video) How Europe Under-developed Africa: 50 years since its publication⁠ (2-hr video about Walter Rodney's activist scholarship) Vidhya's understanding is based on personal communication over time with Justin Laing of ⁠Hillombo Consulting⁠ ⁠Why Marx was Right: Alienation⁠ (25-min video) How Capitalism Absorbs Anticapitalism⁠ (15-min video) ⁠West India Emancipation⁠, speech delivered at Canandaigua, New York, August 3, 1857 “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them” (p. 139 of Assata: An autobiography, 1987; Lawrence Hill) Marshall, A. G. (2015). ⁠Black Liberation and the Foundations of Social Control⁠. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 74(4), 775–795. Delgado, R. (2009.) ⁠Explaining the Rise and Fall of African-American Fortunes: Interest Convergence and Civil Rights Gains⁠. Harvard Civil Rights—Civil Liberties Law Review, 37: 369–387. Kohl-Arenas, E. (2015). ⁠The Self-Help Myth: Towards a Theory of Philanthropy as Consensus Broker⁠. The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 74(4), 796–825. The ⁠MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis⁠ Facebook group ⁠The Frankfurt School, Student Radicalism & Anti-Communism⁠ (75-min podcast by Unequal Exchange with ⁠Gabriel Rockhill⁠) ⁠The Frankfurt School: From a Failed Revolution to Critical Theory⁠ (25-min video) ⁠A place for solitude, community & healing for attendees who identify as Indigenous, Black, and People of Color (IBPOC) at Evaluation 2019!⁠ (AEA365 Blog post from 2019) Music “Inspired” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Contact us Website: ⁠https://themay13group.net⁠ LinkedIn: Carolina: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela⁠ Vidhya: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker

In this episode, we (hosts Vidhya Shanker and Carolina De La Rosa Mateo) introduce ourselves, share how our worlds came together, and discuss The May 13 Group. We talk about our personal histories inside and outside evaluation, the Minnesota IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis, how The May 13 Group came to be, and what it could possibly become. We invite anyone who works in and around evaluation or other knowledge work (e.g., philanthropy, nonprofits, NGOs, government, academia) to take a listen and help craft the ecosystem! Episode transcript: Transcript_TheMay13GroupPODCAST_WhoAreWe_Episode1_20240513 Notes: 1 correction: At the 45:34 mark, Vidhya misspoke by saying "before my generation and even before me" when she meant to say "before me and even before my generation." References: Why is Evaluation So White? (90-min video of Center for Evaluation Innovation webinar that took place on 5/13/2020) Definitional Tension: The Construction of Race in and through Evaluation (dissertation that draws from and led to many of the ideas The May 13 Group is working with) Pangea World Theater (comrades who helped create the stop-action play entitled The Revolution Will Not Be Culturally Competent, which led to the MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis) Theater of the Oppressed (playlist of videos ranging from 5 to 30 min on Augusto Boal and the performance traditions underlying The Revolution Will Not Be Culturally Competent) Welcome to the Revolution! MN IBPOC in Evaluation Community of Praxis (AEA365 Blog entry) Shaking Up the Evaluation Patriarchy: AEA Womanists & Feminists Coming Together to Claim Power and Place in the Academy (AEA365 Blog entry) The Invisible Labor of Women of Color and Indigenous Women in Evaluation, Part 1 (AEA365 Blog entry) The Invisible Labor of Women of Color and Indigenous Women in Evaluation, Part 2 (AEA365 Blog entry) Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (inspiration for much of the mutual aid work) Why is Evaluation So White? 10 Ways to Repair, Reverse, Redress, and Regenerate from the Racialized Circulation of Capital in Evaluation (20-min video of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations short-talk) Mondragon (worker-owned coop in Spain) The Rand Corporation and Our Policy Makers (article about the Rand Corporation) Beyond Mobility: The Limits of Liberal Urban Policy (paper with a bit about/ surrounding the Urban Institute) The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (book about the origins of philanthropy and NPIC) Music: "Inspired" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Contact: Website: https://themay13group.net Linktree: Vidhya: https://linktr.ee/dr.vidhyashankerphd LinkedIn: Carolina: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carodela Vidhya: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidhyashanker

The May 13 Group is an emerging ecosystem oriented toward—and energized by—epistemic healing and wholeness in, through, and around evaluation. Join the hosts as they dive into ideas and stories that deepen our understanding of how structurally-focused collective action, including direct action organizing, is needed to reclaim the means and ends of knowledge production and how to make it happen.