Activist research reflections: another framework of and for social transformation

 

Research as a tool for social transformation? by Verger, Cortina & Gonzalez

In this text members of Investigacció, group organizer of the First International meeting on activist research and social movements, presents their reflection on activist research after the meeting celebration.
Link from Illacrua website Catalan Version

Barcelona 22-25 January 2004: First International Conference on Social Movements and Activist Research   by Sian Sullivan

In this article Sian Sullivan presents her reflections, from an UK participant perspective, around the International meeting on activist research and social movements held in Barcelona in January 2004.
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Challenging the authority of both researcher and activist by Alexandra Zavos

Is it possible to use a researcher’s critical perspective and insights to question activist agendas and practices and at the same time use the activist’s involvement and commitment to challenge research practices?
Link from the Investigacció website English Version

CASA Zine I - Cultural analysis summer academy

It includes several articles on activist research and privatization of the education among others.
Link from the CASA website English Version

Papers on action research and related topics Web maintained by Bob Dick

In this webpage you will fine plenty of material related to action research coming from Australia.
Link from the web maintained by Bob Dick English Version

Action participation research: proposals for a citizenship active by Colectivo IOE

In this dossier the collective IOE gave a clear view of the basic lines of the Action Participation Research and the different orientations that it have inside the Spanish State.
Link to the Investigacció website Spanish version

Participatory research: An introduction by Manolo

In this article Manolo presents from a Brasilian perspective the historical origens of the participant research, its methodologies and the phases that are present inside a participative research.
Read It! Portugues Version

Rebellious Research: Itinerarios por la investigación activista en Estados Unidos by Intervenciones Translocales - Maribel Casas-Cortés & Sebastián Cobarrubias

A description of some experiences of two activist reserchers inside the activist world in USA, a subejctive approach to Chicago Direct Action network or the university of the poor
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Sistematización de experiencias en América Latina: Una propuesta para el análisis y la recreación de la acción colectiva desde los movimientos sociales por Antoni Verger i Planells

En el siguiente artículo se incide en las corrientes metodológicas de investigación participativa de la acción social colectiva. Con el objetivo de ilustrar una de estas perspectivas, nos centraremos en un método proveniente de América Latina [...] se trata de la sistematización de experiencias, un proceso colectivo de reconstrucción y reflexión analítica de experiencias mediante el cual interpretarlas, comprenderlas e introducir mejoras en futuras practices.
Read it! Castilian Version

Hands-on corporate research guide by Anna Couey

If you are looking for information on corporations for an activist campaign, investigative article, lawsuit, socially conscious investment, or a school paper, this interactive guide will take you step by step through researching corporations on the Internet.
Link to the CorpWatch website English Version

Common notions: Experiences and essays between research and activism by Posse, Deriva Approdi, Precarias a la Deriva, Grupo 16, Colectivo Sin Ticket, Colectivo Situaciones…

This publication present a variety (coming from Argentina, Italy, Spain, France… collectives and individuals) of interpretation of the co-research tradition today.
Link from Traficantes de Sueños Editorial website Castillian Version

On method (Hypothesis 891: beyond de piquetes –Prologue) by Colectivo Situaciones

Link to the Colectivo Situaciones website
English and Castilian Versions

Adrift through the circuits of feminized precarious work by Precarias a la Deriva

Article on methods for feminist precarious research
Link from Traficantes de Sueños website English Version
Precarias a la Deriva website Castillian Version

Globalisation et propriété intellectuelle. La fuite par la liberté dans l'invention du logiciel libre by A. Corsani & M. Lazzarato

La globalisation exprime une rupture dans les modes de valorisation des capitaux dont l'une des expressions, la privatisation des "biens publics" [...] ne peut pas être comprise comme simple extension de la logique marchande à un secteur jusque là protégé. Loin de voir réapparaître l'économie de marché -mythe d'une société atomisée d'individus égaux - face au déclin de l'État, l'enjeu de cette privatisation est l'appropriation monopoliste des droits de propriété sur le vivant, sur la reproduction de la vie biologique et sociale de l'humanité.
French Version

Cognitivo Capitalism. Intellectual property and collective creation by A.Corsani, Y.M. Boutang, M. Lazzarato, C. Vercellone, O.Blondeau, N. Dyer-Witheford, A. Kyrou

Un articulo cooperativo sobre la propiedad intelectual y la creación colectiva
Link from the website of Traficantes de Sueños Castilian Version

Notes towards a politics of knowledge by Hilary Wainwright

In this paper, Hilary Wainwright argues that the process of knowledge production in a process of resistance linking action, knowledge and power is perhaps the most important continuity between the new movements of the 70’s and the movements of today, and present the experience in relation to the Social Forums.
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The Critical Thinking Tradition by Paolo Virno

This text traces the roots in the 60ies AND 70IES of the most powerful - and in virno's opinion uniquely vital in the postfordist age- critical thinking tradition: the Italian Operaism, the Situationism and the Guy Debord's work, the Foucalt's knowledge-power dispositives, the Deleuze and Guattari's "molecular revolution", the Krahl's thesis on the intellectual mass worker, the Sohn-Rethel's work on abstract knowledge and science. All this together with a block of facts appeared in the 77' movement..
Read It! Italian version

An Ethnography of Nowhere: Notes Towards a Re-envisioning of Utopian Thinking by Stevphen Shukaitis

What means nowadays to produce alternatives imaginations inside anarchist struggle and theory? How can be utopias reappropiated actively by people and social movements?
Read It! English Version - Read more at Constituent Imagination

Why do activists need theory? by Alf Gunvald Nilsen and Laurence Cox

This paper attempts to ground the need for theory within activist experience, and to characterize the ways in which social movements, seeking to transform the world, have found themselves forced to engage in a process both of developing theory to reach beyond their local situation and of building links of solidarity with other movement
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Exploring the relevance of critical realism for social movements research  by Alf Gunvald Nilsen

This article carries out a meaningful exploration of the relevance of critical realism for social movement research, and tries to clarify how to conceive the “research object” – social movements – and the knowledge interests that guide the research itself”
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Gramsci, movements and method: the politics of activist research by Laurence Cox

This paper begins with a paradox in social movement theory, moves backwards to an ontology of human existence, then forwards to outline a political epistemology, and concludes with the history of a research process.
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A Model of Activist Research: How to Study Class Consciousness …and Why We Should by Bertell Ollman

This text rises up the dilemmas on making a Marxist inquiry into the class-consciousness of today's workers. “Every study of class consciousness affects how workers think, one way or another (…), and effectively theorized Marxist study of class-consciousness of today's workers remains to be done”. How can we (re)think the role of the class consciousness as a conceptual tool to reappropiete activist research as a methodology to face up modern challenges inside research?
Read It! English Version - More at: dialectical marxism

Expertise citoyenne : deux cas français et quelques pistes par Thibault Le Texier

Laissant de côté la médiatisation des succès altermondialistes qu’ont pu être Seattle et les Forums sociaux, nous nous attacherons ici à comprendre la construction d’une alternative cognitive aux dérives néolibérales de la mondialisation [...] pour en tirer quelques pistes de recherche.
Read It! French Version

New York City’s needle exchange policy and the intersection of science, activism and politics: A case of activist research and social change by Ricardo E. Barreras

Taking, as a case study, the political struggle over needle exchange policy in New York City, this research examined the multiple roles social science and activism played in promoting policy change [...] The results of this study provide strong evidence that activism, the overlap between activist, social scientist, and policy networks, as well as social science knowledge itself, all played a key role in the success of the needle exchange movement. 
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