Political Activist Ethnography Studies in the Social Relations of Struggle

As activists strategize, build resistance, and foster solidarity, they also call for better dialogue between researchers and movements and for research that can aid their causes. In this volume, contributors examine how research can produce knowledge for social transformation by using political activist ethnography, a unique social research strategy that uses political confrontation as a resource and focuses on moments and spaces of direct struggle to reveal how ruling regimes are organized so activists and social movements can fight them.

Featuring research from Aotearoa (New Zealand), Bangladesh, Canada, Poland, South Africa, and the United States on matters as diverse as anti-poverty organizing, prisoners’ re-entry, anti-fracking campaigns, left-inspired think-tank development, non-governmental partnerships, involuntary psychiatric admission, and perils of immigration medical examination, contributors to this volume adopt a “bottom-up” approach to inquiry to produce knowledge for activists, not about them. A must-read for humanities and social sciences scholars keen on assisting activists and advancing social change.

About the Editors

Agnieszka Doll is a socio-legal scholar in law, health and regulation and assistant professor at the Department of History and Sociology at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. Laura Bisaillon is a political sociologist and associate professor in the Department of Health and Society at the University of Toronto Scarborough. She is the author of Screening Out: HIV Testing and the Canadian Immigration Experience (2022). Kevin Walby is associate professor of Criminal Justice, University of Winnipeg. He is co-author of Police Funding, Dark Money, and the Greedy Institution (2022).

With contributions by Sue Bradford, Aziz Choudry, Jean Louis Deveau, Agnieszka Doll, Gary Kinsman, Erin Sirett, Shannon Walsh, Megan Welsh Carroll, and A. J. Withers.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Institutional Ethnography and Political Activist Ethnography in Context / Agnieszka Doll, Laura Bisaillon, and Kevin Walby
2. Part 1. Direct Action: The Sociology of Confrontation
   1. 1. “Don’t Study Us—­Study Them”: Political Activist Ethnography and Activist Ethics in Practice / A. J. Withers
   2. 2. Direct Action as Political Activist Ethnography: Activist Research in the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty / Gary Kinsman
   3. 3. Looking into the Mouth of Premier David Alward’s Trojan Horse: Responsible Environmental Management of Shale Gas in New Brunswick, Canada / Jean Louis Deveau
   4. 4. Research from the Ground Up: Reflections on Activist Research Practice and Political Activist Ethnography / Aziz Choudry
3. Part 2. Research as Policy Intervention and Critique of Institutions
   1. 5. From an Institutional Absence to Radical Action: A Political Activist Ethnography Project in Aotearoa / New Zealand / Sue Bradford
   2. 6. North-­South Partnership and Capacity Building: Tracing Ruling Relations in the Canadian-­Bangladeshi Partnership Between Social Justice NGOs / Erin Sirett
   3. 7. Mandatory HIV Screening Policy and Everyday Life: A Look Inside the Canadian Immigration Medical Examination / Laura Bisaillon
4. Part 3. Frontline Research and the Ethics of Engagement
   1. 8. Studying Out: Institutional Ethnographic Fieldwork as Post-incarceration Activism / Megan Welsh Carroll
   2. 9. Double Ethics, Double Burden: Professionalism, Activism, and Institutional Ethnography / Agnieszka Doll
   3. 10. Objectivity Regimes: Challenges for Activist Research in the Academy / Shannon Walsh
5. Conclusion / Agnieszka Doll, Laura Bisaillon, and Kevin Walby
6. Postscript: Looking Back, Looking Forward / Gary Kinsman
7. List of Contributors

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