Women’s Collective Agency Mobilization as a Commoning Practice for Disrupting Institutions amid State-sponsored Violence

This working paper explores the emergence of collective agency and organizational commoning among Belarusian women activists in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential elections.Drawing on an auto/ethnographic account and 33 oral history interviews with exiled women activists and former political prisoners, it examines how women enact commoning, the collective production and maintenance of shared resources and solidarities, through grassroots initiatives, affective labor, and informal support networks.Crucially, the paper argues that state-sponsored violence functions not only as a suppressive force but also as a constitutive mechanism that shapes and intensifies practices of commoning.The author's own participation is reflected in auto/ethnographic vignettes, which are interwoven to illustrate lived experience and embodied knowledge.Finally, the paper reflects on the ethical complexities of conducting research on politically sensitive topics, offering insights into how commoning sustains resistance and builds alternative infrastructures of solidarity under duress.