A new research article reflecting on how women-centred organisations can achieve a “communal democracy” to sustain their support in academia over the long haul has now been published online on Irish Geography and is available at http://www.irishgeography.ie. In this paper I use the Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) Ireland group as a case to make this argument. I contend that women’s work in academia, as well as in community organising, can both be considered invisible, devalued labour. Building on this, I show that the potential ability of communities to achieve representation and gain resources, to actualize goals (intellectual, professional, and personal) and to provide collective goods, might support women in academia in addressing this severe oversight. In the current academic climate of structural change and funding cuts, ensuring the full participation of all genders in consultative processes is more important than ever. It is time now to recognise the gendered nature of academic citizenship whose membership to the community also implies duties deriving from kinship in reciprocation of the benefits that membership brings. To this end, I outline the women-centred community organising model, the social capital that is involved, and the range of activities for empowering women to alter the efforts in Irish academia to making this change.

Lidia KC Manzo (2019). “Constituting SWIG Ireland: Community, Social Capital and Academic Citizenship“ in Irish Geography 52(1). ISSN: 0075-0778 (Print) 1939-4055 (Online)