Social Movement Research in/and Struggles for Change: Research for What and For Whom?

Abstract

Research is key to daily organising and struggles for social, political, economic and environmental justice. If research is to be useful in organising and struggles for change, it cannot be something that metaphorically or literally sits on a shelf or behind a paywall, and is inaccessible or irrelevant to the communities, movements and publics whose concerns, issues and lives it engages with, and who may also well be the foundations of much of the knowledge it draws on. This article discusses some of the ways in which activist researchers—or activists who do research as part of their organising/activism—understand and practise research, and the purposes and processes of knowledge production. It offers guideposts for scholars and academics who are keen to do research with, for and about social movements. What are some of the sources of such knowledge? How is this knowledge produced? How do such practices relate to professionalised forms of research and expertise? How might such research practices foster the building or strengthening of collective agency?