Part 1 Direct Action The Sociology of Confrontation

These chapters demonstrate how research and activism are reflexively related to work in and for social movements. We begin the first section with A. J. Withers’s chapter, “‘Don’t Study Us—Study Them’: Political Activist Ethnography and Activist Ethics in Practice,” which provides an explanation of PAE from the standpoint of the anti-poverty organizer. Withers offers a reflective account of the features and practices of PAE, particularly those that pertain to the intersections of ethics and activist research. They developed a unique approach to ethics as a part of their PAE research following the principles of accountability, utility, accessibility, reciprocity, and reflexivity. In practice, it meant that the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty directly oversaw Withers’s research, and its members and the organization itself were to be the primary beneficiaries of the results. Withers notes that these ethical “principles are not discrete pillars; they are interwoven in multiple ways—like a net” and should be considered an integral part of PAE practice and ethics.

Gary Kinsman’s chapter, “Direct Action as Political Activist Ethnography: Activist Research in the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty,” explores direct action tactics as a form of activist research. Drawing on his activist organizing with the Sudbury Coalition Against Poverty, an anti-poverty organization, he illustrates new ways that direct action can be used to yield valuable knowledge about ruling relations.

Jean Louis Deveau’s “Looking into the Mouth of Premier David Alward’s Trojan Horse: Responsible Environmental Management of Shale Gas in New Brunswick, Canada” explores research-activist work in community mobilization against the fracking industry in New Brunswick. He demonstrates how the then provincial government created an ideological concept of “responsible environment management” that allowed the government to bypass public consultation and enable extraction and drilling for shale gas.

The late Aziz Choudry’s “Research from the Ground Up: Reflections on Activist Research Practice and Political Activist Ethnography” problematizes the idea of activist knowledge production to point to hierarchical power relations. He explores how activist knowledge undergoes subjugation, arguing that a certain kind of activist knowledge occurs in activism and organizing. He concludes that not all activist knowledge and research are equally valued and that this devaluation of knowledge and research of smaller grassroots organizations is a serious problem. This problem can stem from the professionalization of activism.