Using Sartrean existentialism to understand the lived experiences of constituency activists.

This research uses Sartrean existentialism to better understand the lived experiences of constituency activists. This research identified and analysed the existential themes and concepts that motivated individuals to become and remain constituency activists. Data on constituency activists’ motives and desires was gathered from 26 constituency activists in the Leeds City Region, using one-to-one interviews, focusing on their stories and experiences of constituency activism activities. Interviews were analysed using grounded inquiry.

The research found that an individual’s lived experience of constituency activism is primarily an individual existential project of action. The existential project of action demonstrates the individual’s constant effort to avoid self-deception and make sense of their being-in-the world through political participation. These individual existential projects of action are sustained by four existential themes. These are: 1) consciousness, which creates the individual existential projects of action; 2) praxis, which brings the individual existential projects of action into the world; 3) anxiety, which helps shape and form the individual existential projects of action; and 4) authenticity, which evaluates the individual existential projects of action for the constituency activist.

The research contributes to existing knowledge on political engagement and incentives by revealing that: 1) constituency activism can be better understood as individual existential projects of action sustained by the existential themes of consciousness, praxis, anxiety, and authenticity; 2) ontological freedoms and opportunities for self-creation are outcomes of individual existential projects of action; 3) ‘anxiety’ is a creative force vital to a constituency activist’s individual existential projects of action; and 4) there is an inescapable presence of bad faith in a constituency activist’s individual existential projects of action.