Learning from each other's struggles: invite to present

national | education | press release Thursday April 22, 2010 10:33 by Laurence Cox

Social movement, activist & militant research workshop: producing knowledge for change

Invitation to present at a workshop on activist research methods in June.

Dublin and Maynooth, June 18th, 19th & 20th

Social movements like community development, anti-capitalism, the women's movement, union organising, majority world solidarity, GLBT activism, anarchism and socialism, community education and community arts, migrant rights and anti-racism all produce knowledge for change.

Sometimes this knowledge is a radical understanding of how the status quo works and how it can be changed; sometimes it is expert knowledge of a particular issue that can be used in media and legal battles; sometimes it is research on movements themselves that can be used to get better at what we do; sometimes it is popular education work and radical teaching.

This weekend workshop is for people researching social movements, activist/militant researchers, adult and community educators and movement organisers thinking about the next step in a period of crisis. It is not a place for delivering conventional academic papers, but rather a workshop space for sharing skills, learning from each other's struggles and developing our practice. We are looking for 15-20 minute presentations that can be combined into joint workshops around particular problems in this area.

If you are interested in presenting, please email hdarcy1 AT gmail.com by Monday, May 24th with a short summary of what you would like to do (and any particular equipment that you need and can't bring yourself!) Suggested kinds of presentation could include but would not necessarily be limited to the following:

- History or genealogy of activist/militant research
- Presentation of a case where activist/militant research was conducted in order to develop social movement practices
- Workshop which shares the skills or one or more research method
- Theoretical presentation (e.g. Who are the agents of social transformation; the usefulness (or not) of social movement theory; etc.)
- How do we identify weaknesses in power structures?
- Social movement praxis
- Particular approaches to radical / popular / community education
- How does research become movement-relevant?

The event will be public, and all are welcome: a programme will be made available nearer the date.

An initiative of:

· Participatory action research programme in social movement practice
(NUI Maynooth Sociology)

· Political Ethnography group, Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (University of Nottingham)

Updates online at http://actionresearchireland.blogspot.com, to include booking and accommodation details
and a full programme after the deadline.