‘In the business of changing lives’: Activist knowledge-practices and the founding of consumer/survivor businesses in southwest Ontario (1980-2005)

Danielle’s doctoral research draws on extensive interview (n=42) and archival data to consider the significance of collectively remembering, preserving and sharing mad people’s activist histories. The central question guiding her work is: What is the significance of the historical emergence of consumer/survivor businesses to the consumer/survivor/ex-patient movement? She explores that question by examining how in the 1980s and ‘90s, small businesses started by and for consumer/survivors (which is how they self-identified) were sites that fostered community organizing, with lasting implications for mad people’s movement organizing and mental health policy in Ontario. Central to this project has been an effort to center and preserve local activist histories.