Organizers: Leonardo Custódio (leonardo.custodio@tuni.fi), Camilla Marucco (cammar@utu.fi)
The workshop “Solidarities in Politically Engaged Research” is a conversational space focused on the practices of solidarity and participation in especially, but not exclusively, migration, (anti-)racism and ethnic relations research.
In this workshop, we welcome participants from different disciplines, nationalities, genders, ethnicities and career stages. Accepted presenters are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences and different approaches dealing with practical, ethical and methodological challenges while conducting research that promotes practices of solidarity and participation.
Some issues we aim at discussing during this workshop are:
– How can researchers include solidarity and participation in their research designs?
– How does planning and implementing this inclusion affect research processes and outcomes?
– How can we deal with the ethical issues arising from research processes that include practices of solidarity, dialogue and participation?
– How can we deal with the psychological, physical and professional risks – to researchers and participants – that may occur in research processes which include solidarity and participatory practices?
– What innovative practices can we adopt when research that includes solidarity and participation is not easy to reconcile with academia?
– What are the roles, positions and possibilities of the researcher vis-á-vis academia and broader society in politically engaged research?
– What are the possibilities of working for social change through our (at times precarious) academic research, but also beyond its spaces and times?
Above all, this workshop aims at promoting interdisciplinary dialogue and networks for cooperation around activist research in Finland. For this purpose, we have also organized the Activist Research Network in which we meet (four times a year) to discuss practicalities and nuances of politically engaged research (Becker, 1967; Collins, 2013; Hale, 2001; 2008; Suoranta & Ryynänen, 2014). To subscribe to the network, send an email to <activist-research-list@uta.fi>.