Research for, with and by social movements

1. Social Movements, Agroecology and Food Sovereignty
Or…..
REFLECTIONS ON
Research for social movements,
Research with social movements,
and research by social movements
Accompanying the collective reading
and transformation of reality
Peter Rosset

2. Social Movements: collective political actors—typically not electoral parties—of
a mobilizing nature, who fight for structural social change, usually through non-
conventional, contentious, contestatory, collective actions
Examples of rural social movements:
Transnational movement: La Vía Campesina
National movements:
Landless Workers’ Movement (MST), Brazil
Assembly of the Poor(AoP), Thailand
National Indigenous Congress (CNI), México
Zapatistas (EZLN) México
etc.
They are different from:
NGOs
Electoral parties
Trade unions
Communities
etc.
Increasingly they
control territories
and build
autonomies

3. Wisdom from Chairman John: “Who you hang
out with determines the questions you ask”

4. Examples of questions that come from
hanging out with rural social movements…
• What pedagogical methods work best when we want to use
agroecological training to forge an historical-political subject
out of the peasantry?
• How can we best use diálogo de saberes to turn “food
sovereignty” into an effective banner of joint struggle based
on cross-sector and cross-class alliances?
• How does the recent rise of financial capital, and the nature
of the alliances it has built with extractive industry capital,
the State, and the mass media, changed the nature of the
struggle for land and the defense of territory? How should
agrarian movements change our tactics and discourse in
response?

5. Chairman John :
“We are not Marxicologists”

6. Assertions
• Rural social movements are an increasingly important
space for the collective production of new knowledge
and for new theory
• Dialog among knowledges (diálogo de saberes) and
political training schools and processes
• Organic leadership, their own intellectuals, organic
intellectuals— increasingly they carry out their own
research (how can we participate and contribute to
them?)

7. • All research, every researcher, has ideological
baggage, is situated, positioned, is located in
relations of power. There is no such thing as neutral.
• What varies is only the degree to which this is made
explicit, and how aware each researcher is or is not
conscious of their position and ideological baggage,
• It is very to important that we make our positioning
explicit, especially to ourselves and to the so-called
“subjects” of our research (our “partners”?)

8. Key issues in doing research with
social movements
• Access
Most social movement distrust researchers, NGOs, political
parties, etc. It is not easy to be granted access, and it is easy
for access to be cut off. The key factor is building trusting.
And maintaining trust.
• Ethics and the role of researchers
Problems arise because of differences in class origin, race,
gender, vested interests (i.e. academic “points”),
individualism vs. collectivity, money, and bad previous
experiences with the “appropriation of knowledge,
“betrayals,” “washing dirty laundry in public,” destructive vs.
constructive criticism, etc.

9. Investigación “activista” con los
movimientos
• Cox (1998). The “social conditions” of a research project are
fundamental. To research a particular reality means, among
other things, “finding a way to participate in it,” and
“contributing to it in any way asked of us.”
• Elements of class and other relations of power have to be
critically examined, in order to find the best ways for the
participants to “situate” the researcher, and to locate the
research activity within their own perspectives and projects.

10. Edelman (2009):
In the best case, research with social movements is the collective
construction of knowledge, collectively by both researchers
and movement activists.
All too often differences arise, concerning which knowledge to
produce, how to produce it, what to do with this knowledge,
and who “owns” it once it is produced.
The researcher must be constantly aware of the conditions
under which trust has been granted and can be taken away. In
practical terms, the researcher must put her/himself at the
disposition of the movement, and do whatever they need that
is within our capability; in exchange for this, we are allowed
the privilege of doing research with the movement.

11. Necessary Attitudes
• Being in agreement with movement positions
• All types of knowledge are valid; all cosmovisions contribute in diálogo de
saberes; we much be conscious that our own beliefs form a cosmovision
• Horizontal relations among equals, each contributes from their own knowledge
• The intellectual/researcher must avoid falling into excess protagonism
• Understand and accept what the movement wants and needs, be very flexible
• Humility, Patience, Honesty, Transparency, Commitment, Entrega
• Be trustworthy and follow through on your commitments to the movement
• Always be aware of the fine line between constructive and destructive criticism
• Don’t do everything yourself; otherwise others won’t learn how to do what we
know how to do
• Be sensitive to who defines the issues and the research questions
• Don’t make decisions alone
• Always think about relations of power, age, class, gender, formal education, etc.
• Avoid taking sides in internal conflicts, and intensifying divisions
• Be careful with resources, avoid generating clientelism and dependency on the
researcher

12. ANAP Asociación Nacional de Agricultores Pequeños de Cuba
La Vía Campesina
AGROECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION:AGROECOLOGICAL REVOLUTION:
TheThe Campesino a CampesinoCampesino a Campesino movement of ANAP in Cubamovement of ANAP in Cuba
Co-labor researchCo-labor research

13. Workshop in Granma

14. VISITA A LA CPA EN LA PROVINCIA HOLGUIN

15. VISITA A LA FINCA EL ENCANTO

17. SR. VICTOR MANUEL PROENZA (Munc. CALIXTO GARCIA)

18. CPA Sra. Emma y Sr. Beltrán
Munc. Rafael Freire
Prov. Holguin

21. TALLER LA HABANA

22. Taller La Habana

23. Taller
en
Santa Clara

25. Taller Finca Sr. Joaquin Municipio Najasa
Prov. Camaguey

27. ANAP Peasant Training School,
Cuba

29. Continental Meeting of Agroecology TrainersContinental Meeting of Agroecology Trainers
of La Via Campesina, “Paulo Freire” Latinof La Via Campesina, “Paulo Freire” Latin
American Institute for Agroecology, VenezuelaAmerican Institute for Agroecology, Venezuela

30. ¡Globalize struggle!¡Globalize struggle!
¡Globalize hope!¡Globalize hope!