Activist research for education and social movement mobilization

Abstract

The role of social movements and social and political activism as educative processes and milieus is often overlooked by scholars of social movements and those working in the field of adult education. Yet social movements are not only significant sites of struggle for social and political change but also important – albeit contested and contradictory- terrains of learning, knowledge production and research. Grounded in insights from the author’s longstanding involvement in multi-scalar social movement organizing, education and research, this article draws primarily from his current research on activist research practice in social movements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which work closely with them. It traces the dialectical relations between informal and non-formal learning and education in social action, research, education and action. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2012-2013 in the Philippines, South Africa, Canada and the UK, the article focuses on the ways in which research is carried out by movement research activists “in the struggle”, located outside of university institutional contexts or partnerships. Emphasizing the social character of all knowledge production, it argues that everyday struggles are not only the means to build movements, alliances, and counter-power but are generative of, and in turn informed by the learning/knowledge aspects of this activity.