Asking Tough Questions: The Ethics of Studying Activism in Democratically Restricted Environments

Political Arts Urbanization: A Malaysian Case Study

“…hosting an event in support of Bersih). This diversity mirrors how Weiss (2003b) describes the multi-pronged approach employed by Malaysia"s heterogeneous civil society to foment greater democracy in the country (see also (Lee et al, 2010;Smeltzer, 2012)). …”

Scholar-Activist Terrain in Canada and Ireland

“…Post-2008 economic crisis, academics are enduring and combatting greater corporatization on their campuses, the casualization of scholarly labour, more fervent pressure by administrations to demonstrate teaching 'outputs' and monetizable research 'inputs', and, in some cases, threats to their academic freedom (e.g., Bailey & Freedman, 2011;Côté & Allahar, 2011;Hanke & Hearn, 2012;Lynch, Crean & Moran, 2010;Mercille & Murphy, 2015;Nussbaum, 2010;Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004;Tuchman, 2011;Turk, 2014). Moreover, when combined with family and other personal obligations, the publish or perish ethic of the profession means that a commitment to activist-oriented endeavours which promote social justice is often difficult to sustain (e.g., Few, Piercy & Stremmel, 2007;hooks, 1994;Napoli & Aslama, 2011;Rodino-Colocino, 2012;Smeltzer, 2012;Ward, 2005). Nevertheless, scholars at all levels of the tiered academic system continue to engage in myriad forms of activism on campus and within their respective local, regional, and international communities (Flood, Martin & Dreher, 2013).…”

From ‘Here’ to ‘There’: Social Movements, the Academy and Solidarity Research

“…Whilst some solidarity researchers have sought to predefine the exact role that ought to be adopted by academics in their work with movements, it is reasonably obvious that, once we invoke the idea of movement interests, such roles should ideally be defined in conversation with the movements themselves. Thus, as I shall capture below, ongoing processes of dialogue between researcher and movement to, in part, identify the role that should be performed by the former in support of the latter, is identified in other parts of this literature as a key methodological and ethical principle (Smeltzer 2012;Hale 2006).…”

“…This context, which has been characterised as their 'dual responsibility' to the academy and a particular political struggle (Smeltzer 2012, 262, referencing Hale 2006, has given rise to a number of specific methodological and ethical principles, observation of which is crucial to their endeavour.…”

“…And others, finally, have recognised that there are more 'traditional' roles that can be performed by movement-sympathetic academics, which don't integrate movement knowledge per se, but do definitely integrate movement interests. These include conducting 'positivistic' research projects for movements, or providing movements with reliable and accurate knowledge of their field(s) of relation (Smeltzer 2012;Hale, 2006).…”