hydrarchist writes:

First International Gathering on Social Movements and Research

[Jornades Internacionals Moviments Social i Recerca]

The first "International Conference on Social Movements and Research"
(Jornades Internacionals Moviments Social i Recerca), was held at the end
of January 2004 in Barcelona. It brought two hundred participants from
various places around the world together, who are doing activist research
or who are interested into it. It was a space for various discussions on
the relation between research and social movements and it was ideal for
exchanging ideas and to create research networks. A network of activists,
students and researchers from Barcelona organised the meeting.During the four-day conference (22-25 Jan.), over twenty workshops were
held, as well as a concluding assembly on how to continue. The themes of
the workshops were diverse, ranging from identity politics,
network-theories and issues on general activist research, how to change
economic life and how to overcome boundaries between 'the self' and 'the
other' while doing research. Some groups organised specific
issue-workshops on, for example, Genetical Modification, Copyleft and
Desktop Activism.

Some of the workshops had many participants, while others were poorly
attended. This was largely dependent on the moment of the day the workshop
was held. At the same time, some workshops received better attention in
the program with longer descriptions and more accurate titles. The larger
workshops or meetings were normally splitted up in smaller groups in order
to discuss issues more in-depth. Thereafter the groups got together into a
plenary session to report their main discussions or conclusions.

Academic and autonomous research
Many participants were students from different international universities
and the academic sphere, who are looking for ways to establish activist
research. Most attention during the conference was drawn to the study of
social movements, however, taking movements foremost as an object of
study. These participants in general felt alienated from traditional
studies on movements. The conference was good in connecting these
activists and researchers who are looking for alternative, more engaged,
research into movements.

Nevertheless, needless to say, there are many research groups worldwide
that research, for example, trade, alternative agriculture, solidarity
economics and influence of corporations on EU politics. These topics can
generally be seen as activist-targets, providing activists ammunition for
action and arguments. These groups could have been more actively invited
to introduce the work they do and to develop workshops on how to do this
type of research.

At the conference, only some of these groups, mostly local, were present,
such as the Barcelona copyleft group. The organisers acknowledged that not
enough international groups were invited, and most workshops had been
organised by groups from the local Barcelona context. However, the initial
idea of the conference was to organise a meeting for activists and
students from Catalonia. It was only later that the idea of inviting
international activists and researchers came forward.

Activist research

The central goal of the conference was to offer a physical place to
discuss activist research. How can we utilise tools of research for the
aim of transforming society? After several years of reviving activism, a
more researched review on strategy and common goals is maybe needed.
However, it was generally felt among some participants and organisers that
a general or central theme was lacking.

It is necessary to acknowledge, though, that the conference was put
forward rather as an open space than as a meeting where certain
conclusions had to be drafted. Within this mindset, attendants were
offered the option of proposing themes for meetings and workshops.
Articles were posted on relevant topics around these workshops on the
conference website. More than thirty articles had been posted on it and
over twenty workshops took place.

However, some more attention to the meaning of activist research was
missed. In fact, there was little discussion during the conference on what
is actually meant by this concept. Not only it was rarely discussed during
the conference, but the organisation itself did not have a common idea
about it either.

According to Marc, one of the participants from the hosting organisation,
"this was not so good, as people were coming to us to ask what activism
research actually is, and we did not have clear answers. As a consequence,
we were maybe less focused. But various points of views on activist
research coexisted during the conference, which is good. For many,
opinions about activist research changed during the conference."

In broad terms, activist research can be seen as research conducted for,
within or by social movements, by activists but also for example by
academics who see themselves as part of a wider environment and social
struggle. "You don't have to be an activist (however you define it), to do
research that help forward social struggles for change", one of the
participants remarked.

Social transformation

A conclusion of one introductory workshop was that the goal of social
researchers is not supposed to be “being an academic”, but instead it aims
at social change. The goal of social research could be, in this respect,
to understand relations between movements, society and politics, taking
social change as the core element of these dimensions.

"To me, to engage oneself and one's research with social transformation,
is what constitutes social research activism”, one of the participants
said. “You can do this in several ways: by finding weak and strong points
of movements, by learning from other movements from present and past
times, and, finally, by studying movements in connection to power
relations”.

Some workshops were specifically oriented towards these ideas. For
example, one of them was on theories within movements, such as on the need
of radical theory to inspire and study society and social movements.
Participants also pointed out, though, that ideas are nice, but it is
action and practice that is needed most.

Another workshop, on how to utilise 'new' network models to organise a
horizontal society from below, concluded on the other hand that we need
theory to critically reflect on how to implement change 'here and now'.
Although some ideas sound progressive and relatively new, they could still
reinforce new hierarchies. For example, new networks might be based on new
or old forms of domination outside the current capitalist system.

Future
While not many international research groups were present, there were
however many international participants, from European countries as well
as from the American mainland. Some participants from the Spanish State
also participated in the international groups, which helped exchanging
ideas between different language groups.

A small cultural program was organised as well. At Saturday a band played.
The event had been organised by ‘Ateneu Popular’ where the meeting took
place (a community-cultural centre in the outskirts of Barcelona). Can
Masdeu, a squat in the mountains, hosted Friday dinner and provided
accommodation to non-local participants.

During the conference, different organisations displayed sets of books in
the main hall of Ateneu. The organisation had a table for participants
with information on the program and a table provided space for leaflets,
posters and other free material.

The concluding meeting at the conference was about 'how to continue'. The
conference was a first general face-to-face meeting of activist
researchers and interested persons within this context. Generally, it was
not seen as an end goal. Discussion will hopefully continue, articles will
be written and ideas and new practices need to be exchanged yet. There was
a proposal to organise a second meeting in one or two years. No hosting
group proposed to organise one yet, but the idea needs to be spread around
the world as well.

Pagina de web: http://www.investigaccio.org/