Feminist Action-Research: Questioning Dichotomies between Activism and Academia

Abstract

Starting from the intersection between action-research methods and feminist epistemologies and methodologies, the main objective of this research is to deepen the articulation between social activism and academic research in the study of social movements carried out through feminist participatory research. To this end, six in-depth interviews were carried out with researchers who have developed this type of experience in the last ten years in the Spanish context. The results obtained highlight the difficulty of combining a dual academic and activist profile. However, this border space is presented as an opportunity for a meeting point between both environments from which to claim a way of doing science with political and situational objectives. In this way, the potential of feminist research-action experiences to build knowledge and, at the same time, contribute to social transformation is highlighted.