Situating Engaged/Practice-based Research as Activism(s)
Lines of Flight and JUST Research Group Seminar
School of Architecture, UoS
Date: Tuesday 13th February
Time: 13:00-17:30
Location: Arts Tower 13.19
The event is intended for SSOA pgrs. Please get in touch with linesofflight.ssoa (at) gmail (dot) com to sign up
Short synopsis: How do we articulate engaged, action and practice-based research as an activist practice which aims to bring about social and spatial change? Claiming an activist positioning as a researcher requires developing a critical but also embedded and engaged relationship with the context and collaborators. This is often triggered by the location and the forms of (in)justice the research is situated within. Activist research is uncanny, demands rethinking of the research canons, and an ethical revisiting of the affective relationships established with the context. Shifting between the roles of practitioner, researcher, activist provides the opportunity to learn from being in the intersections, and claim new futures for spatial practice and research.
This symposium brings together established activist researchers and practitioners with ECRs and PGRs to provide a space to (re)frame their research through the lens of activism. We’ll explore if and why activism is necessary from the situated perspectives of an engaged/practice-based research(er), in the context we are working in, and the context of (the) research. The focus is on how activism and practice informs our methodological approaches, our positionality and ultimately shapes the research outcomes as a result.
Keywords: Practice-based research, Research by design, Embedded research, Activism, Social Change, Critical Spatial Practice, Agency
Speakers are invited to respond to our shared questions as below:
What theories of activism help you define your approach? (what fields can we borrow from, social sciences / geography / militant / spatial practices … etc)
- What are the location(s) of action? (contested contexts, spaces of conflict/post-conflict, colonised/postcolonial, post-socialist, capital-led developments)
- What are the types /typologies of actions you perform/are involved in? (advocacy, counter-mapping, mobilising, performing, documenting, influencing, preserving, educating, etc.)
- What are the spaces in action? (community-hubs, open public spaces, activist spatial practice)
- How do you engage with ethics in your engaged/practice-based approach? (relational ethics / ethics of care / institutional ethics)
- What constitutes change in your research?
Networking Lunch (12:30-13:30) (13.17+13.18)
Introductions (10’) Esra Can and Andrew Belfield
01 Activist Praxis in Dialogue (13:40-14:30)
In conversation: Prof Doina Petrescu and Prof Gabu Heindl
02 Claiming our activism (14:30-16:00)
Session will focus on activist/engaged/practice dimensions of the PhD research and will explore methods of data collection and analysis questioning how activism and/or practice informs the methodological approach.
Part 1. PhD ‘Hot from the Oven’
- Esra Can ‘Instituting Hayat: Disruptive Care and Stasis Urbanism in Famagusta’ (10’)
- Alex Axinte ‘Discreet Commoning in the Bloc: OPEN Garage’ (10’)
- Ana Mendez de Andes Aldama ‘Becoming-(in)-common. Municipalist experiences of disruption. (10’)
- Thomas Moore ‘Deschooling Through Liveness: Becoming Agent of Civic (un)Learning Between The University & The City.’ (10’)
Part 2. PhD in Progress ‘Work being baked’ 2 slides 5’ reflections each, responding to selected questions from the list
- Lara, Maria, Open call to PGRs and JUST research group
- Deniz Kesici ‘Pro-activism 101 – Healing the worlds’ (5’)
- Andy Belfield ‘Embedding activism in scholarship’ (5’)
Break 16:00-16:15 (participants invited to populate question boards with post-its)
03 Discussion and Reflections (16:15-17:30)
Question boards: What theories of activism inform your thinking? What are the types /typologies of actions you perform? What constitutes change in your research?
Reflections: Prof Doina Petrescu and Prof Gabu Heindl (5’ each)
Discussion and Q&A
Closing Statements and next steps: Esra Can and Andrew Belfield (5’)
Follow up Actions:
Proposal 1: LoF Workshop > Mapping Activist Practices
Where do we collate our combined understanding within LoF?
What commonality do we share in our approaches?
Is this something we can claim as a LoF/SSoA approach?
Proposal 2: LoF Hosting AHRA Session ‘Body Matters’ (abstract deadline in March)
Focusing on activist research as an embodied experience, methods for embedded research (ethnography, auto-ethnography, etc), keeping relationships with the context after the research is done, etc.
