The first Occupy Research Collective (ORC) Convergence recently took\u00a0place in London. Around 50 people participated,\u00a0and dozens more watched online. The theme of the day was \u201cethics and activist research\u201d. In the spirit of Occupy, however, the final agenda was decided collectively on the day of the event.<\/p>\n
Discussion topics included the commodification of universities, radical education, the ethics of researching social movements, how to learn from\u00a0the\u00a0history\u00a0of radical movements, and questioning the notion of research itself.<\/p>\n
ORC\u00a0aims to foster the building of a network of radical researchers. This includes activists, students, academics and anyone interested in doing research associated with activism, social change, education or community. Participants want to experiment with alternative, collective ways of doing, disseminating and collaborating on research and publishing, and to counteract neoliberal trends in education and the research environment.\u00a0<\/strong>Occupy Research is more than a network of researchers: it is Occupy activism in practice, with intent\u00a0to\u00a0open up the\u00a0process of research to social movements, and to enable those movements to hold researchers to account.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most refreshing element of the\u00a0Convergence\u00a0was the acknowledgment that we don\u2019t have all the answers\u00a0and do not seek to answer every question. Occupy Research, not unlike the broader Occupy movement, is an open and collective process which favours asking over preaching. Researchers care about which questions to ask, and who is asking them. Attendees expressed hope that\u00a0the Convergence\u00a0will inspire further consideration of\u00a0the ethics of\u00a0research\u00a0within and alongside the radical politics of asking.<\/p>\n