
Contents
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Introduction: Puppets and Protests Introduction: Puppets and Protests
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Why Movement Thinking Matters Why Movement Thinking Matters
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Social Movement “Learning and Knowledge Production” Social Movement “Learning and Knowledge Production”
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Knowledge Needs, Movement Development, and Direction Knowledge Needs, Movement Development, and Direction
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Differences Between and Within Movements Differences Between and Within Movements
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What Is to Be Done? What Is to Be Done?
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Assessing Particular Movements Assessing Particular Movements
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Conclusion: A Strategic Learning Course for Activists Conclusion: A Strategic Learning Course for Activists
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References References
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16 How Do We Think in Movements? Learning, Knowledge, and Struggle
Get accessLaurence Cox is a Dublin-based activist, teacher, and writer working with social movements. His books include We Make Our Own History: Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neoliberalism; Why Social Movements Matter; and The Irish Buddhist: The Forgotten Monk Who Faced Down the British Empire. He is professor of sociology at the National University of Ireland Maynooth.
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Published:19 September 2024
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Abstract
Struggles for justice are hard—we have powerful and wealthy opposition, while our knowledge and culture are rarely designed for the challenge. Activists have to find the right questions and create languages and institutions to answer them: we need to learn to think, together, as movements. This is easier said than done. The struggle for justice exists at many levels, with differing capacity to act and reflect; and struggle is a developmental process. Finding, or creating, relevant learning (from past movements, movements elsewhere, or on other issues) is always a challenge; but movements also move. How can we know what social transformation might be possible, beyond today? Movements generate different kinds of knowledge—agitational, educational, and organizational. But as our own spaces for thinking have declined and other kinds of institutions mediate between us, thinking from and for our own needs becomes harder. This chapter asks how to think about specific movements’ knowledge needs; how well these are met by existing spaces for thinking; and how different kinds of people can help the development of “really useful knowledge.” It finishes with a concrete example of a movement learning project.
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