Activist research and organizing: blurring the boundaries, challenging the binaries

Contributing to Moving Action Research to Activism with Living Theory Research

“…Choudry argues for a Marxist theory of praxis: …which insists upon the unity of thought and action, contending that research and organizing in this context are mutually constitutive and that knowledge production in these movements is dialectically related to the material conditions experienced in struggles for social and economic justice. (p. 472) I agree with Choudry (2013) that in the dialectic of the research process and organizing: …. you can't really put boundaries in terms of "am I doing research now or am I doing education, or am I doing organizing", the lines are blurred, and … that struck me more when I was in organizing as opposed to when I was in a research institution.…”

“Coming out” … as a translator? Expertise, identities and knowledge practices in an LGBTIQ* migrant community translation project

“…Similarly, the domain of social movement studies initially saw social movements as unruly masses that deviated from social norms and has in recent years shown increasing interest in the role of various forms of knowledge (see e.g. Breyman et al 2017;Casas-Cortés, Osterweil, and Powell 2008;Choudry 2014;Eyerman and Jamison 1991).…”

“…At the same time, fields such as science & technology studies and social movement studies have shown significant interest in the role that knowledge plays in social movements around, for example, interventions in policy processes, consciousness raising and organizing (Breyman et al 2017;Choudry 2014;Epstein 1996;Eyerman and Jamison 1991;Oliver and Johnston 2000). In this article, we seek to bring together these two areas of research to critically reflect on notions of expertise in relation to community translation, and to examine the role of social knowledge practices (Camic, Gross, and Lamont 2011) in community translation for activist movements.…”

Reflexiones sobre la complejidad del quehacer antropológico, nuestra posicionalidad, y subjetividades en la frontera (EEUU-México)

“…Los campos del activismo antropológico y del activismo dentro de la práctica educativa se han desarrollado fuertemente en las últimas décadas (Hale, 2001(Hale, , 2008Choudry, 2014;Egan, 2001;Fine y Weis, 1996;Romero, Arce y Cammarotta, 2009). Los investigadores han advertido acerca de las tendencias individualistas de las investigaciones en las ciencias sociales, que en algunas ocasiones pueden reforzar la injusticia hacia las poblaciones más vulnerables (Fine, 1989).…”

“…A pesar de esto, también vemos en la literatura que los investigadores desarrollan diversas estrategias para poder combinar el activismo y el éxito en su carrera. Otros estudios se han enfocado en las relaciones sociales de la producción de conocimiento fuera de la academia, profundizando la manera en que los activistas negocian sus identidades también como investigadores (Choudry, 2014). Finalmente, otro grupo de estudios muestran las voces de los profesores y de jóvenes estudiantes como activistas e investigadores de problemas cotidianos que atentan contra la justicia social (Romero, Arce y Cammarotta, 2009), convirtiéndose en activistas y educadores con el objetivo de contribuir a su propia comunidad y motivar una conciencia social (Urrieta, 2007).…”