Conférence du Professeur Laurence Cox (Maynooth University)

Social movements should matter to social scientists not only because of their contribution to social change, but also for their contributions to knowledge. In a time when top-down forms of knowledge – those of states and markets, universities and traditional media – have an ever-declining grasp on social reality, the knowledge produced in movements holds important potential for substantive rationality. This talk will offer a critical perspective on learning and knowledge production in social movements in terms of positionality and forms of knowledge, discuss the challenges of university-based engaged research with movements and the complexities of contributing to practitioner knowledge in the field.

Dr Laurence Cox is Associate Professor of Sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth. He is author or editor of ten books on social movements and Buddhist Studies and founding co-editor of the journal Interface. His current projects include a research methods handbook for social movement studies and a strategic training project for experienced movement activists across Europe.