AYO!MovementTM: an ethnographic exploration of agency-focused social determinants of health with/in/on an urban indigenous youth movement

Abstract

The social determinants of health movement has admirably shaped the way research theorizes health inequalities between and within populations. However, discourses this movement has re-created inadequately conceptualize structure and domination as deterministic forces encroaching upon communities without recourse for collective action to shape their own health and well-being. The role of agency and power to permit collective action and instigate change thus remain unclear conceptually. Following the ontological boundaries and complexity of practices enacted by an urban indigenous youth movement in Winnipeg, a movement-relevant concept – the economies of indigenous misery – is mobilized to explore ethnographically how the movement organizes itself at the intersection of civil society and non-profit economies, in turn, influencing the delivery of health and social services. The everyday practices of commodifying urban indigenous voice with/in non-profit economies allows influence to circulate among influential actors by enabling and constraining contradictory movement objectives in complex yet productive ways.