Social Movements and Activist Research
by - 04.01.2004 20:00
investigaccio
Conference/Meeting About Social Movements and Activist Research
Barcelona (Catalunya, Spain)
22nd -25th January 2004
1. Presentation
This meeting have as its objective to establish a space of encounter, exchange, self-formation and debate from the "social movements" (SM) in relation to activist research/investigation.
We are conscious of the fact that the word "social movement" is argued over, so, in order to avoid misunderstandings, what we mean by Social Movements in the contest of this meeting is: those collectives, organizations and groups that from forms of organization that are not institutionalized work for social transformation from a critical perspective of collective emancipation.
We believe that the central, most important part of the meeting falls in the participating subjectivities of activist research, realized from/for social movements. We are critical of academic research that studies SM like a mere object of to be known.
We invite to participate all of those people and collectives that are interested in (re)creating, (re)thinking, (re)inventing and (re)appropriating of these knowledge and of the formation from the focus on "activist research/investigation". We are not hoping for a local encounter, since already taking root in the globalization of dynamics of production, command and coercion, we believe that we need to strengthen networks of interchange and exchange much beyond the borders and boundaries constituted by the confines of States, in order that we can (co)learn from one another, so that we can define shared lines of intervention without this taking place at the cost of establishing a local coordination between the distinct experiences of activist research/investigation.
Finally, we hope that the conference auto-constitute itsefs as a-disciplinary in order that we overcome the fictitious academicism distinctions/divisions.
THREE PRINCIPLES FROM WHICH WE BEGIN:
- Activist Research/Investigation
We believe that Activist Research can be on of the instruments for the critical transformation of the current/actual realities.
We want that our research generate changes, give visibility to conflicts and add another element to social mobilization.
We make explicit our political commitment in the actual/current cycle of protests.
-Beyond the academic disciplines
It seems to us that the institutional academic field is a space in which the very relations of power we are trying to break, are reproduced.
We believe that it is necessary to overcome the division of knowledge between disciplines that seem as if they were separate and closed compartments. We want to generate knowledge from our own subjective positions (as opposed to the supposed objectivity of the sciences), without limitations or hierarchies.
- Collective production and shared knowledge
We believe that it is necessary to create spaces and mechanisms of/for collective production, exchange and reflection around these knowledge.
We denounce that mercantilism and privatization of knowledge as one of the cause of social exclusion. We want to break with the logic of imposed knowledge and make of investigative processes emancipators instruments of collective production and shared knowledge.
2. Who is organizing this conference/meeting?
This initiative comes from a group of people who do research from/of SM, some from autonomous/self-run spaces and others more closely related to academic institutions, but that try to overcome the narrow marks of academicism. This initial group, numerically 'small' has decided to open itself to other persons interested in the project.
An Organizational Assembly/committee has been put together, consisting at this moment of 15 people. The participation in this committee is open. (if you are interested in following the meetings of this organization group you can consult the notes at the conference website [->
http://www.investigaccio.org]
The logistical work will be done mostly by people who live in the metropolitan area of Barcelona; but we do not want that the conference be designed solely by this organizational committee. We give much importance to the participation of all of you in defining what this meeting will be. For this reason we have activated 2 list servers, so that those people who cannot participate in person but are interested in contributing ideas, suggestions and critiques, can do so.
These are:
recercammss@lists.riseup.net For the discussion and dissemination of information about general/larger themes, for example: the design of the contents of the meeting. org-recercammss@lists.riseup.net Directed towards those who are able and interested in having a more integral role in the organization of the workshops themselves (i.e. logistics, etc.)
In order to subscribe to either list you simply need to send an email to the list, adding to the object of the mail the word "subscribe" (to recercammss@lists.riseup.net if you want to subscribe to the list of general information; and to : org-recercammss@lists.riseup.netif you want to subscribe to the list of organization.)
We also ask that once you subscribe you send a brief introduction of yourself, your interest in the meeting and how you found out about it. Send to: [-> llistes@investigaccio.org].
We are also putting together a website [-> http://www.investigaccio.org] with a high level of interaction
-If you want to help the only person working on this particular task please send an email to: admin@investigaccio.org - If you want more information about the conference, please contact: info@investigaccio.org - If you are able to/want to help with translations, please write us specifying what language you can translate from and to. To: traduccions@investigaccio.org
3. When and Where
The conference/meeting will take place in Barcelona (Catalunya, Spain) around the 22th -25th Jenuary 2004. We are discussing which days between Thursday and Sunday are the most adequate due to the availability of the participants; soon we will have a place in the Web where you can communicate your preferences. The conference will take place in the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris http://www.noubarris.net/ateneu/, pleace closed to Social Movements.
We are trying to find lodging for all of the participants, in the individual houses of the organizers and in an autonomous social center with more space (we have not made any definitive decisions yet).
4. What and How
We want to fill the content of the conference according to the interests of the participants, and in order to do that we will begin an on-line collective debate (both on the list servers and on the website). In principle, we would like to offer spaces in which groups can confront/meet, like tables of debates and workshops, as well as things like plenary where we can share information, learning collectively all together. We believe that in order to take the most advantage of the time we have, we should omit grand presentations and dedicate ourselves directly to confrontations and/discussions.
Contributions, in text form, can be realized by including in the web site [-> http://www.investigaccio.org] self produced material that can serve as the basis for the debates.
There will be no official language for the meeting. All languages will be welcome. In the smaller discussion tables we will try to reach a consensus around the language spoken by the largest number of participants, whereas in the plenary we will have a system of simultaneous translation-interpretation using a radio circuit. If you know more than one language you would be stupendous if you could help us with the translation!!! As such we would also ask, as much as it is possible, for those who contribute texts to offer summaries in other languages (and if someone wants to contribute translation, that will be very welcomed)!
5. Financing
This meeting as usual, is autonomous/self-organized, and for this reason we are trying to produce the least expenditures as possible. We are debating the eventuality of having to put a small minimum inscription fee (to cover primarily the costs of food and materials). We are also looking to have a small amount for basic expenses for the conference as well as for providing small travel scholarships to those who want to come but cannot afford to. In the future we will define criteria for apportioning these travel scholarships in case that the requests for aid exceed our capacities to pay. We have decided not to subsidize the travels of people who have there own means of coming. We are also asking those organizations and collectives who want to participate to look for their own sources of funding and if by chance you find other means of subsidizing that you would like to render collective? fabulous!
Finally, we want to remind you how important it is that we have collaboration in the entire process of defining the meetings. Visit our website, get in contact with us, inform individuals and collectives that would be interested and get involved in what you can. We will see each other in January!
This meeting have as its objective to establish a space of encounter, exchange, self-formation and debate from the "social movements" (SM) in relation to activist research/investigation.
We are conscious of the fact that the word "social movement" is argued over, so, in order to avoid misunderstandings, what we mean by Social Movements in the contest of this meeting is: those collectives, organizations and groups that from forms of organization that are not institutionalized work for social transformation from a critical perspective of collective emancipation.
We believe that the central, most important part of the meeting falls in the participating subjectivities of activist research, realized from/for social movements. We are critical of academic research that studies SM like a mere object of to be known.
We invite to participate all of those people and collectives that are interested in (re)creating, (re)thinking, (re)inventing and (re)appropriating of these knowledge and of the formation from the focus on "activist research/investigation". We are not hoping for a local encounter, since already taking root in the globalization of dynamics of production, command and coercion, we believe that we need to strengthen networks of interchange and exchange much beyond the borders and boundaries constituted by the confines of States, in order that we can (co)learn from one another, so that we can define shared lines of intervention without this taking place at the cost of establishing a local coordination between the distinct experiences of activist research/investigation.
Finally, we hope that the conference auto-constitute itsefs as a-disciplinary in order that we overcome the fictitious academicism distinctions/divisions.
THREE PRINCIPLES FROM WHICH WE BEGIN:
- Activist Research/Investigation
We believe that Activist Research can be on of the instruments for the critical transformation of the current/actual realities.
We want that our research generate changes, give visibility to conflicts and add another element to social mobilization.
We make explicit our political commitment in the actual/current cycle of protests.
-Beyond the academic disciplines
It seems to us that the institutional academic field is a space in which the very relations of power we are trying to break, are reproduced.
We believe that it is necessary to overcome the division of knowledge between disciplines that seem as if they were separate and closed compartments. We want to generate knowledge from our own subjective positions (as opposed to the supposed objectivity of the sciences), without limitations or hierarchies.
- Collective production and shared knowledge
We believe that it is necessary to create spaces and mechanisms of/for collective production, exchange and reflection around these knowledge.
We denounce that mercantilism and privatization of knowledge as one of the cause of social exclusion. We want to break with the logic of imposed knowledge and make of investigative processes emancipators instruments of collective production and shared knowledge.
2. Who is organizing this conference/meeting?
This initiative comes from a group of people who do research from/of SM, some from autonomous/self-run spaces and others more closely related to academic institutions, but that try to overcome the narrow marks of academicism. This initial group, numerically 'small' has decided to open itself to other persons interested in the project.
An Organizational Assembly/committee has been put together, consisting at this moment of 15 people. The participation in this committee is open. (if you are interested in following the meetings of this organization group you can consult the notes at the conference website [->
http://www.investigaccio.org]
The logistical work will be done mostly by people who live in the metropolitan area of Barcelona; but we do not want that the conference be designed solely by this organizational committee. We give much importance to the participation of all of you in defining what this meeting will be. For this reason we have activated 2 list servers, so that those people who cannot participate in person but are interested in contributing ideas, suggestions and critiques, can do so.
These are:
recercammss@lists.riseup.net For the discussion and dissemination of information about general/larger themes, for example: the design of the contents of the meeting. org-recercammss@lists.riseup.net Directed towards those who are able and interested in having a more integral role in the organization of the workshops themselves (i.e. logistics, etc.)
In order to subscribe to either list you simply need to send an email to the list, adding to the object of the mail the word "subscribe" (to
recercammss@lists.riseup.net if you want to subscribe to the list of general information; and to : org-recercammss@lists.riseup.netif you want to subscribe to the list of organization.)
We also ask that once you subscribe you send a brief introduction of yourself, your interest in the meeting and how you found out about it. Send to: [->
llistes@investigaccio.org].
We are also putting together a website [->
http://www.investigaccio.org] with a high level of interaction
-If you want to help the only person working on this particular task please send an email to:
admin@investigaccio.org - If you want more information about the conference, please contact: info@investigaccio.org - If you are able to/want to help with translations, please write us specifying what language you can translate from and to. To: traduccions@investigaccio.org
3. When and Where
The conference/meeting will take place in Barcelona (Catalunya, Spain) around the 22th -25th Jenuary 2004. We are discussing which days between Thursday and Sunday are the most adequate due to the availability of the participants; soon we will have a place in the Web where you can communicate your preferences. The conference will take place in the Ateneu Popular de Nou Barris
http://www.noubarris.net/ateneu/, pleace closed to Social Movements.
We are trying to find lodging for all of the participants, in the individual houses of the organizers and in an autonomous social center with more space (we have not made any definitive decisions yet).
4. What and How
We want to fill the content of the conference according to the interests of the participants, and in order to do that we will begin an on-line collective debate (both on the list servers and on the website). In principle, we would like to offer spaces in which groups can confront/meet, like tables of debates and workshops, as well as things like plenary where we can share information, learning collectively all together. We believe that in order to take the most advantage of the time we have, we should omit grand presentations and dedicate ourselves directly to confrontations and/discussions.
Contributions, in text form, can be realized by including in the web site [->
http://www.investigaccio.org] self produced material that can serve as the basis for the debates.
There will be no official language for the meeting. All languages will be welcome. In the smaller discussion tables we will try to reach a consensus around the language spoken by the largest number of participants, whereas in the plenary we will have a system of simultaneous translation-interpretation using a radio circuit. If you know more than one language you would be stupendous if you could help us with the translation!!! As such we would also ask, as much as it is possible, for those who contribute texts to offer summaries in other languages (and if someone wants to contribute translation, that will be very welcomed)!
5. Financing
This meeting as usual, is autonomous/self-organized, and for this reason we are trying to produce the least expenditures as possible. We are debating the eventuality of having to put a small minimum inscription fee (to cover primarily the costs of food and materials). We are also looking to have a small amount for basic expenses for the conference as well as for providing small travel scholarships to those who want to come but cannot afford to. In the future we will define criteria for apportioning these travel scholarships in case that the requests for aid exceed our capacities to pay. We have decided not to subsidize the travels of people who have there own means of coming. We are also asking those organizations and collectives who want to participate to look for their own sources of funding and if by chance you find other means of subsidizing that you would like to render collective? fabulous!
Finally, we want to remind you how important it is that we have collaboration in the entire process of defining the meetings. Visit our website, get in contact with us, inform individuals and collectives that would be interested and get involved in what you can. We will see each other in January!