Description
Book SynopsisThis cutting-edge and authoritative Handbook covers a broad spectrum of social movement research methodologies, offering expert analysis and detailed accounts of the ways in which research can effectively be carried out on social movements and popular protests. Addressing practice-oriented questions, this Handbook engages with both theoretical and political dimensions, unpacking the multidimensional nature of social movement research for new and established scholars alike and for movement-based as well as academic researchers across many disciplines.
Divided into three thematic sections, this stimulating Handbook dives deep into discussions relating to the methodological challenges raised by researching social movements, the technical questions of how such research is conducted, and then to more practical considerations about the uses and applications of movement research. Expert contributors and established researchers utilise real-world examples to explore the methodological challenges from a range of perspectives including classical, engaged, feminist, Black, Indigenous and global Southern viewpoints.
The Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements will not only appeal to experienced researchers, but also to activists who have started to think about researching their own movements and to politically engaged students. It speaks to new and established scholars in relevant disciplines such as sociology, political science, anthropology, geography, development studies, gender studies, and race and ethnic studies, and particularly those looking to better appreciate the different research methods for understanding social movements.
Trade Review‘The editors have assembled a powerful toolbox for students and scholars of global social movements. The chapters include data rich analyses that illustrate innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to participatory, collaborative and community-based research. The contributors make a strong case for the urgency of research that can produce ethical dialogues, movement strategies, and principled actions.’ -- Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, University of Pennsylvania, US and author of Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil
‘A copious compilation for social movement research, attentive to movement-relevant knowledge and conscious of western ventriloquism and the political diminishment of southern movements as empirical fodder for northern theorizing. For academic and activist alike, a politically productive resource that will travel across forests, fields, shantytowns, factories, university classrooms and libraries.’ -- Dip Kapoor, University of Alberta, Canada and author of Research, Political Engagement and Dispossession: Indigenous, Peasant and Urban Poor Activisms in the Americas and Asia (2019)
Table of ContentsContents: 1 How can we research social movements? An introduction 1 Alberto Arribas Lozano, Anna Szolucha, Sutapa Chattopadhyay and Laurence Cox PART I APPROACHES TO RESEARCHING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS 2 Researching global movements: practices, dialogues and ethics 24 Geoffrey Pleyers 3 Feminist methodologies in social movement studies: gender, positionality and research in practice 36 Özge Yaka and Sevil Çakır Kılınçoğlu 4 Research from, with and for indigenous social movements 50 Xochitl Leyva Solano and Axel Köhler 5 Social movements as learning communities, researchers and knowledge producers 63 Alberto Arribas Lozano 6 A Marxist approach to researching social movements 77 John Krinsky 7 Researching social movements in authoritarian states: preparing and conducting fieldwork in Iran and Turkey 91 Paola Rivetti 8 Cross-sectoral dialogues with social movements in Southeast Asia: translating values, affects, and practices in a polymorphic region 102 Gabriel Facal, Catherine Scheer, Sarah Anaïs Andrieu, Joel Mark Baysa-Barredo, Giuseppe Bolotta, Gloria Truly Estrelita, Rosalia Sciortino, Saskia Wieringa, and Wijayanto 9 Methodological pluralism in social movement studies: why and how 115 Donatella della Porta PART II DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS IN SOCIAL MOVEMENT RESEARCH 10 Learning within freedom movements: using critical oral history methodology 128 Geri Augusto, Danita Mason-Hogans, and Wesley Hogan 11 Doing digital ethnography: a comparison of two social movement studies 144 John Postill 12 Media and communication activism: doing ethnography with ultra-right and progressive social movements 159 Cinzia Padovani 13 Visual research with Mayan social movements in Guatemala: a critical approach 168 Carlos Y. Flores 14 Back and forth: militant ethnography in the ‘crowded fields’ 182 Magdalena Sztandara 15 Making sense of the Narmada movements through Adivasi narratives 197 Sutapa Chattopadhyay 16 The art of talks and conversations in Indigenous research: decolonising interview methods 214 Keneilwe Phatshwane 17 Researching social movement participation in the Global South: what to do after discovering and recording plural and ambiguous narratives in the field? 230 Minati Dash 18 Using surveys to study demonstrators 243 Emily Rainsford and Clare Saunders 19 Analysing protest events: a quantitative and systematic approach 257 Tiago Carvalho 20 How do grievances become manifestos? Developing frame analysis in social movement research 271 Aurora Perego and Stefania Vicari 21 Researching identity and culture in place-based struggles 290 Ayse Sargin 22 Researching ideologies and social movements: why and how? 306 Susann Pham 23 ‘Repertoires of contention’: examining concept, method, context and practice 321 Arnab Roy Chowdhury 24 Searching for mechanisms of social movement success: research on political and cultural underpinnings of protestors’ impact 336 David W. Everson and Robert M. Fishman 25 Historical approaches to researching social movements 349 Stefan Berger PART III APPLICATIONS OF SOCIAL MOVEMENT RESEARCH 26 A story of three activists: the value of activist action research in social movement learning 365 Jane Burt, Tokelo Mahlakoane, Eustine Matsepane and Mmathapelo Thobejane 27 Community-based research: approaches, principles and challenges 377 Anna Szolucha 28 Participatory research as activism: Orlando Fals Borda and the Latin American tradition of engaged research 387 Joanne Rappaport 29 Participatory action research in social movements 399 Laurence Cox 30 Using research in movement strategy 409 Natasha Adams 31 Research methods for studying collective action outcomes 420 Katrin Uba 32 Civil resistance research: how can we make our work more useful to activists and organizers? 432 Steve Chase Index
