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Book Review

Abstract in Portuguese by Aziz Choudry included. ; The role of social movements and social and political activism as educative processes and milieus is often overlooked by scholars of social movements and those working in the field of adult education. Yet social movements are not only significant sites of struggle for social and political change but also important – albeit contested and contradictory- terrains of learning, knowledge production and research. Grounded in insights from the author's longstanding involvement in multi-scalar social movement organizing, education and research, this article draws primarily from his current research on activist research practice in social movements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) which work closely with them. It traces the dialectical relations between informal and non-formal learning and education in social action, research, education and action. Drawing on interviews conducted in 2012-2013 in the Philippines, South Africa, Canada and the UK, the article focuses on the ways in which research is carried out by movement research activists "in the struggle", located outside of university institutional contexts or partnerships. Emphasizing the social character of all knowledge production, it argues that everyday struggles are not only the means to build movements, alliances, and counter-power but are generative of, and in turn informed by the learning/knowledge aspects of this activity. ; peer-reviewed

There is renewed interest in illuminating ways in which collective social struggles can be key sites of learning and knowledge production, analysis, tools for social change – and theory. While it should not be contentious for adult educators to acknowledge the various forms of significant learning that occur in such contexts, there has often been a disconnect between scholarly literature and the learning in the movement spaces which they theorize. This article draws from the author's organizing and education work in social movements, activist groups and non-governmental organization (NGO) networks and from his research and teaching as an academic engaged with the dynamics, tensions and possibilities of learning in social and political activist contexts, critical adult education and social change. Further, in reflecting upon learning and knowledge in social movements, it discusses the place of such struggle knowledge in non-formal adult education/popular education milieus and university classrooms. ; peer-reviewed

Research is a major aspect and fundamental component of many social struggles and movements for change. Understanding social movement networks as significant sites of knowledge production, this article situates and discusses processes and practice of activist research produced outside of academia in these milieus in the broader context of the ‘knowledge-practice’ of social movements. In dialogue with scholarly literature on activist research, it draws from the author’s work as an activist researcher, and a current study of small activist research non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with examples from movement research on transnational corporate power and resistance to capitalist globalization.. It explicates research processes arising from, and embedded in, relationships and dialogue with other activists and organizations that develop through collaboration in formal and informal networks; it contends that building relationships is central to effective activist research practice. In addition to examining how activist researchers practice, understand and validate their research, this paper also shows how this knowledge is constructed, disseminated and mobilized as a tool for effective social action/organizing.

The past decade has seen major movements and mobilizations against the new crop of bilateral free trade and investment agreements being pursued by governments in the wake of the failure of global (World Trade Organization) and regional (e.g. Free Trade Area of the Americas) negotiations, and the defeat of an attempted Multilateral Agreement on Investment in the 1990s. However, in spite of much scholarly, non-governmental organization (NGO) and activist focus on transnational global justice activism, many of these movements, such as the major multi-sectoral popular struggle over the recently-concluded US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, are hardly acknowledged in North America and Europe. With a shift in emphasis pushing liberalization and deregulation of trade and investment increasingly favouring lower-profile bilateral agreements, this article maps the resistance movements to these latest shifts in global free market capitalist relations and discusses the disconnect between these (mainly Southern) struggles and dominant scholarly and NGO conceptions of global justice and the global justice movement as well as questions of knowledge production arising from these movements.

Bannerji, Himani. 2011. Demography and Democracy: Essays on Nationalism, Gender and Ideology. Toronto: Canadian Scholars' Press. ISBN 978-1-55130-389-5. Paperback: 34.95 CAD. Pages: 272.

The past decade has seen major movements and mobilizations against the new crop of bilateral free trade and investment agreements being pursued by governments in the wake of the failure of global (World Trade Organization) and regional (e.g. Free Trade Area of the Americas) negotiations, and the defeat of an attempted Multilateral Agreement on Investment in the 1990s. However, in spite of much scholarly, non-governmental organization (NGO) and activist focus on transnational global justice activism, many of these movements, such as the major multi-sectoral popular struggle over the recently-concluded US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, are hardly acknowledged in North America and Europe. With a shift in emphasis pushing liberalization and deregulation of trade and investment increasingly favouring lower-profile bilateral agreements, this article maps the resistance movements to these latest shifts in global free market capitalist relations and discusses the disconnect between these (mainly Southern) struggles and dominant scholarly and NGO conceptions of global justice and the global justice movement as well as questions of knowledge production arising from these movements.