Call for abstracts: ICA 2025 Preconference

Activism Theory, Activist Practice: Bridging Boundaries Between Researching and Doing Activism

In this preconference, we seek original, rigorous, and innovative contributions and reflections on the intersection of research and activism.

“There is a need,” wrote Pierre Bourdieu in Acts of Resistance, “to invent new forms of communication between researchers and activists, which means a new division of labour between them.” This articulates a long-standing yet increasingly pivotal issue in this time of social crisis and inequalities: in addition to providing analytical tools necessary to understand people and communities fighting against injustices in many realms, how can social science in general and communication research in particular not just produce knowledge on activism, but to what extent feedback and contribute to plausible forms of activism for changing the world? This preconference calls for consolidating connections between activism and social research, through which scholarly (re)interpretations could facilitate what Giddens (1979) suggested as “double hermeneutics”: by changing people’s interpretations of themselves and others, sometimes in fundamental ways and with long-term consequences, social research can become a powerful tool for societal transformation.

Such acknowledgement and connection, we believe, are unique and crucial for researching activism. There is a necessity for a more reflexive approach that advocates that we should not see activism purely as “objects” to be studied from the outside. Rather, activism should be analyzed from the standpoint of insiders’ knowledge, based on the (daily) struggles activist movements are engaged in, and, when possible, with knowledge produced from scholarly work to empower activists and communities. The wider implication of such a socially grounded, practice-oriented analysis of activists’ practices is to advocate that activism theory is conditioned by, and in turn could condition and shape, activist practice for changing the world. Integrating the practical-oriented dimension of doing activism fundamentally encourages us to reflect on what, why, and how we study activism. It also requires us to confront the ethics inherent in our work, particularly regarding how our involvement (or lack thereof) may affect ongoing movements.

Submissions can adopt primarily theoretical frameworks or be grounded in empirical investigations, addressing and reflecting on how activist practice shapes activism theory and vice versa. We strongly encourage submissions that involve perspectives and contributions from practitioners and activists, investigate lesser-studied activist movements, platforms, or issues, or facilitate activities by activist minority groups and/or contentious actors of, for instance, the Global South. We are also interested in work that critically examines the ethical dimensions of scholar-activist engagements. We further welcome submissions by early career scholars and advanced PhD students.

For any inquiries, please send an email to: activism.preconf@gmail.com.

Sponsors

Collaborating with the ICA Global Communication and Social Change Division & the ICA Activism, Communication, and Social Justice Interest Group.