New handbook of social movement research methods: decolonising, engaged and inclusive

 

Laurence Cox, Anna Szolucha, Alberto Arribas Lozano and Sutapa Chattopadhyay (eds.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications for Social Movements. Edward Elgar, January 2024.

 

As colleagues and compañerxs will know, social movement research is an incredibly diverse space – crossing disciplines and theories, creating methods and engaging with movements and communities in struggle in many different ways, and meaning rather different things in different countries, contexts and continents. But young scholars, and movement activists starting their own research, are often poorly served when it comes to knowing how to start – particularly if they do not already have access to university libraries when applying for scholarships or funding. Few undergraduates will have had any dedicated movement research training, and all too often research starts from what people happen to know about and the general habits of particular disciplines, even in our quintessentially interdisciplinary field.

 

Together we have just co-edited the first handbook of social movement research methods for a decade, and have been trying to overcome some of these gaps. A key element for us (with personal histories and research experiences around the globe) has been to attempt at least a partial decolonisation, defining research methods not from North America or western Europe alone as with previous collections but on a genuinely global basis. The book has contributions from research in all continents except Antarctica, with a strong representation of BIPOC, not least Indigenous contexts, and a lot of effort went into translation and supporting non-native speakers without elite levels of English.

 

We also wanted to highlight different forms of engaged research, often marginalised in training but a key element of the actual diversity of the field, ethically significant as well as often representing people’s reason for starting research. Along with a variety of engaged and militant methodologies and methods, the final section of the book covers applications of movement research: how can researchers work together with movements and communities in struggle, and how do “they” find “our” research useful? – questions which are often not asked but which we think are practically central to more engaged research.

 

Among the 32 chapters and 49 contributors are both many names that readers will already know discussing their approaches, but also a wide range of scholars from and working on the global South, activist researchers and creative newcomers. Rather than canonising “this is how research should be done”, we have attempted to foreground “these are some of the many ways of doing good research”, with an invitation to readers to reflect on their own situation and the movements they are working with. We hope that this book will help to encourage new researchers and inspire existing ones in encouraging creativity and intellectual rigour, engagement and decolonisation, and a richer range of dialogues around the world and between researchers and movements.    

 

The print book is unfortunately being sold at library prices only (ebooks are available from £40) – but do please consider getting your library to order one if you are in a position to do so! If not, we have written a substantial open-access introduction to help newcomers to the field orient themselves, and perhaps get copies of chapters through the usual routes.

 

Your library can order the book here: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/handbook-of-research-methods-and-applications-for-social-movements-9781803922010.html

 

The introduction is available here: https://www.elgaronline.com/downloadpdf/edcollchap/book/9781803922027/book-part-9781803922027-6.pdf

 

We hope you find this book useful and a good contribution to taking social movement research further!

 

Laurence, Ania, Alberto, Sutapa

Learning from each other’s struggles homesite & blog

 

Making Other Worlds Possible: Why the Zapatistas Matter to Us (en español aquí) (free)

Movement Learning Catalyst transversal / translocal alliance-building project

Interface new issue (free)

 

Professor of sociology, National University of Ireland Maynooth