Cox, Laurence
(2015)
Scholarship and Activism: A Social
Movements Perspective.
Studies in Social Justice, 9 (1).
pp. 34-53.
ISSN 1911-4788
Abstract
This article revisits the debate over Barker and Cox’s (2011) use of
Gramsci’s distinction between traditional and organic intellectuals to contrast
academic and activist modes of theorizing about social movements. Often misread as
an attack on personal choices in career and writing, the distinction aimed to highlight
the different purposes, audiences, and social relationships entailed by these different
forms of theorizing. Discourses which take ‘scholarship’ as their starting point
position ‘activist’ as a personal choice within an institutional field, and substitute this
moral commitment for a political assessment of its effects. By contrast, few academics
have undergone the political learning curve represented by social movements. This
may explain the widespread persistence – beyond any intellectual or empirical
credibility – of a faith in ‘critical scholarship’ isolated from agency, an orientation to
policy makers and mainstream media as primary audiences or an unquestioned
commitment to existing institutional frameworks as pathways to substantial social
change. Drawing on over three decades of movement participation and two of
academic work, this article explores two processes of activist training within the
academy. It also explores the politics of different experiences of theoretical publishing
for social movements audiences. This discussion focuses on the control of the “means
of mental production” (Marx, 1965), and the politics of distribution. The conclusion
explores the broader implications of these experiences for the relationship between
movements and research.
| Item Type: |
Article
|
| Keywords: |
social movements; learning and knowledge production; Gramsci; organic intellectuals; activist scholarship; |
| Academic Unit: |
Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology |
| Item ID: |
6686 |
| Depositing User: |
Dr. Laurence Cox
|
| Date Deposited: |
16 Dec 2015 14:52 |
| Journal or Publication Title: |
Studies in Social Justice |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| URI: |
|
| Use Licence: |
This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available
here |
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