Researching Otherwise? Autoethnographic Notes on the 2013 Stockholm Riots

Abstract

Market adaptation, fragmentation and precariousness have been widely documented as problematic features of knowledge production processes in the university. This article follows an undercurrent of critical scholarship to explore how paths of resistance can be opened up by researching otherwise. The article builds on autoethnographic notes from a collective and non-funded research project aimed at gathering in situ narratives from people who experienced the 2013 Stockholm Riots. The research strategy behind this project, its organization as well as its results and reception, is here used as a point of departure to scrutinize the conditions of the possibility of critical knowledge production. The article draws attention to a critical place for doing research – in the cracks of the university – which arguably complicates the academic–public divide and keeps open discursive spaces during troubling moments of closure.

Walls, Cracks and Change: The Challenges and Opportunities of Critically Engaged Research Within Current Academic and Refugee Research Structures

“…Some CERs, for example, realize their projects in the margins or outside of academia. While this may not directly challenge or change dominant academic structures, it still enables CERs to explore alternative research practices and paths of resistance (see also De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020).…”

“…However, this renewed interest also appears to be closely connected to neoliberal developments of states and academia (Bourke, 2013). In fact, in the current context of austerity, universities seem increasingly pressured to attract external (government, private or third sector) funds and a preference has emerged for knowledge and community collaborations that are policy driven, have market value and can increase economic prosperity (Bourke, 2013; De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020; Edwards and Brannelly, 2017). This risks that the benefit and validity of research ‘is increasingly cast in terms of its practical utility and policy applicability, wherein the benefits of research collaboration, participation and engagement are tied to research deliverables, outcomes and products’ (Bourke, 2013: 501).…”

“…The assignment of research grants, evaluation of academic excellence and considerations of internal reward systems today rely primarily on scholars’ publication records in ‘international’ (usually US or European) high-impact journals (Burawoy, 2016). This not only discourages researchers from engaging with national or local communities and frames but also pushes them towards mainstream theories and methods (Beaulieu et al, 2018; Burawoy, 2016; De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020). Consequently, critically engaged research and interventions are marginalized and neither appreciated nor rewarded in current academic structures (De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020).…”

“…This not only discourages researchers from engaging with national or local communities and frames but also pushes them towards mainstream theories and methods (Beaulieu et al, 2018; Burawoy, 2016; De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020). Consequently, critically engaged research and interventions are marginalized and neither appreciated nor rewarded in current academic structures (De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020). Nowadays, ‘a counter-hegemonic strategy has great difficulty in surviving, and pursuits in this direction are likely to doom its advocates to irrelevance’ (Burawoy, 2016: 956).…”

“…Considering all of the above, the question emerges whether and where there is space for scholars to ‘research otherwise’ and resist or even transform these structures (De los Reyes and Lundström, 2020). As established in the introduction, deliberate, autonomous and controlled resistance is not easily achieved when power works through invisible, unconscious and taken-for-granted mechanisms that permeate all our knowledge and acts (Bauman, 2000; Foucault, 1978; Young, 2001).…”