We’re excited to announce a new round of movement-based research and we want to invite you to take part.
For the Long Haul: Social Movement Research and Popular Education Initiative
This is a research project about social justice, social change, and the radical imagination.
How can we sustain activism and social movements over the long haul? How do we build strong, resilient, and self-sustaining movements for social, economic, gender, racial, decolonial, and ecological justice?
For six years, the Radical Imagination Project has tried to ask these questions and share the answers among activists. We see research as a collective process of radical transformation.
In the latest phase of our research, we want to talk to two groups of people:
- Experienced social justice organizers: We want to talk you to to learn about and then share the most important lessons and best practices about organizing for social justice. The aim of this project is to help generate and share movement-based knowledge, which is too often lost between organizations and between generations. We are particularly interested in what organizers do, individually and as part of organizations, to keep going, avoid burnout and think strategically.
- People without extensive activist backgrounds, but who are interested in activist issues, and who have attended at least one public event organized by the Radical Imagination Project and intend to attend more over the next six months. This is a research project about social justice, social change, and the radical imagination. We’re interested in exploring the relationship between popular education and the ways people come to think about and act in the world. A better understanding of your experience and perspective could help those organizing for social justice do their work better.
What are we asking you to do?
Are you an experienced social justice organizer? If so, we want to sit down with you for a 60-90 minute interview.
Are you someone who is new to activism? Have you attended at least one public event organized by the Radical Imagination Project, and do you intend to attend more over the next six months? If so, we want to invite you to talk to us in three, sixty-minute, one-on-one interviews over a six month period.
During the interview you can always refuse to answer any question for any reason – your participation is entirely voluntary and you can withdraw at any time. The questions are general and open-ended and don’t demand personal or sensitive information. You can also tell us how you’d like to be identified in any public communication that comes out of the project, using either your real first name or a made-up name, depending on your preference.
We will share the fruits of our research in a number of ways: through the project website, through public and community events, and in some written pieces. We’ll keep you informed about everything that comes out of the project, especially those pieces that include information you provided.
Interested? Want to schedule an interview or get more information? Get in touch!
Email: radicalimagination@riseup.net
facebook.com/radicalimaginationproject
Twitter: @rad_imagination
Phone: 902-457-6565