Conference session on militant research - Social movements and engaged research: Methodologies of co-production
Sam Halvorsen
Hi all,
Social movements and engaged research: Methodologies of co-production
Sponsored by the Participatory Geographies Research Group
Convenors: Jenny Pickerill, Sam Halvorsen, Bertie Russell
In 2007 two influential books focused on research methodologies: ‘Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting people, participation and place’ (Kindon et al, 2007); and ‘Constituent Imagination: Militant investigations, collective theorization’ (Shukaitis et al, 2007). Both methodologies claim to challenge mainstream academic traditions, to carry out ‘engaged’ research ‘with’ or ‘within’, and to counter hegemonic approaches. Participatory Action Research (PAR) recognises a ‘plurality of knowledges located in a variety of institutions and locations’ (p.11) rather than the confines of policy-making and academia, valorising the knowledges of those who have been systematically excluded. Militant investigation, meanwhile, seeks to collectively develop new strategies of political resistance and argues that such ‘revolutionary knowledge’ must be ‘deeply embedded in the logic of transformational practice’ (p.12).
In this call for papers, interventions and other creative forms of contribution, we are interested in PAR, militant investigation and alternative engaged approaches to research with/within social movements. In particular, we wish to explore the common ground and tensions between such approaches and the challenges they pose to academic geographical knowledges. Questions we would like to address include but are not limited to:
◦ Can engaged research approaches justify claims of co-production?
◦ How is academia to create space for the (voice of) ‘the other’?
◦ What are the temporal and space-relational bounds on commitment to both social movements and academia in engaged research?
◦ How do engaged approaches (differently) represent, resolve or problematise the activist/academic identity?
◦ If engaged epistemologies are taken seriously, (how) should engaged academics act collectively?
◦ Do engaged approaches constitute solidarity? (c.f. Featherstone, 2013)
◦ Can/should engaged approaches sustain a claim to the production of theory?
◦ Can/should engaged approach sustain a claim to contribute to social change?
◦ How do these approaches relate to Marxist, Anarchist and other radical analyses?
◦ Are PAR and militant investigation synonymous or antagonistic?
◦ Is militant investigation limited to an auto-ethnographic method?
◦ How are PAR and other engaged approaches to be reported?
◦ What are the challenges to and transformations in engaged research approaches that have emerged since 2007?
We will seek to facilitate access to this session not only for academics employed in universities but for para-academics (see HammerOn Press forthcoming), activists and others with an interest in contributing. In the context of this session, at least, co-production demands that participation should not be limited by material, spatial or temporal constraints. We will therefore endeavour to make the session open access and, using technology to extend participation in space and time, accessible to anyone who cannot attend in person.
Please send abstracts or proposals for contributions (max. 300 words) to Sam Halvorsen sam.halv...@ucl.ac.uk, Jenny Pickerill jp...@LEICESTER.AC.UK and Bertie RussellB.T.R...@liverpool.ac.uk.
FEATHERSTONE, D. (2013) Solidarity: Hidden Histories and Geographies of Internationalism. London: Zed books
HAMMERON PRESS (forthcoming 2014) The Para-Academic Handbook: A Toolkit for making-learning-creating-acting. HammerOn Presshttp://www.hammeronpress.net/page21.htm
KINDON, S., KESBY, M. & PAIN, R. (eds.) 2007. Participatory Action Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting people, participation and place. London &New York: Routledge.
SHUKAITIS, S. & GRAEBER, D. (eds.) (2007) Constituent Imagination: Militant investigations, collective theorisation. Oakland: AK Press.
jr...@riseup.net
Looks great, when's the submission deadline and when is the
conference/meeting?
Sorry I haven't been keeping up with Holloway, other things got in the way.
James
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> FEATHERSTONE, D. (2013) Solidarity: Hidden Histories and Geographies of
> Internationalism. London: Zed books
>
>
>
> HAMMERON PRESS (forthcoming 2014) The Para-Academic Handbook: A Toolkit
> for making-learning-creating-acting. HammerOn
> Presshttp://www.hammeronpress.net/page21.htm
>
>
>
> KINDON, S., KESBY, M. & PAIN, R. (eds.) 2007. Participatory Action
> Research Approaches and Methods: Connecting people, participation and
> place. London &New York: Routledge.
>
>
>
> SHUKAITIS, S. & GRAEBER, D. (eds.) (2007) Constituent Imagination:
> Militant investigations, collective theorisation. Oakland: AK Press.
>
>
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> "Occupy Research Collective" group.
> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an
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>
Antonio Calleja-Lopez
I have the same question as James. When and where would the conference session take place?
ACL
Sam Halvorsen
Sessions on Research and Activism at the UK Geography Conference London, August 26-29 2014 - Invitation to Participate
A range of seminars, discussions and training events will be taking place at the Annual International Conference of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) that may be of interest to both researchers and activists from outside geography. Free-of-charge ‘fuller places’ are available for non-academics (activists, research partners etc), low-income researchers and postgrads who wish to participate in a session but do not have access to funding to register for the whole conference. Please contact session organisers for details. For more info about this sessions, and for contacts, please visit: http://www.pygyrg.co.uk/
1. Participatory Methodologies Training Day, aimed at postgrads, early career researchers and anyone with an interest. It will take place on August 26th and limited bursaries will be available to help fund participation (contact: sam.halv...@ucl.ac.uk)
2. Open Discussion on Co-production and relations of researcher-researched, in particular, we would like to encourage participation by people in ‘researched’ positions to come and share experiences and thoughts with those ‘researching.
3. Seminar Discussion on Researching Social Movements, in particular exploring the continuities and contrast between militant research and participatory action research, and the many challenges of working with these methodologies. (contact: sam.halv...@ucl.ac.uk)
4. Seminar Discussion on Social Movements, Commons and Other Values, we aim to explore contradictions, tensions and potentialities of co-production of ‘other values’, the common(s) and social change.
5. 'Power, knowledges, activism and social change in disability research' - session focusing on the challenges and opportunities of working 'with' participants, followed by a workshop with those involved in co-producing participatory disability research.