Praxis and Politics: Knowledge Production in Social Movements

by Janet M. Conway

Overview

Praxis and Politics explores the knowledge arising from activist praxis and its significance for reimagining radical and democratic politics. It is based on five years of direct involvement in the Toronto-based Metro Network for Social Justice and their work in coalition building, campaign-organizing and 'economic and political literacy' work in the aftermath of the signing of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement. The book breaks new theoretical and methodological ground in social movement studies in drawing on a wide range of traditions including cultural studies, urban studies, political economy and feminism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415882453
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/18/2010
Series:	New Approaches in Sociology
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Janet M. Conway teaches feminism and social movements in the politics department at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. She is a long-time activist, active in women's, anti-poverty and economic justice organizations. She was a founder of the Metro Network for Social Justice, which is the subject of this book. Conway is the author of  Identity, Place, Knowledge: Social Movements Contesting Globalization, Fernwood (2004).

Table of Contents

Preface. 1. Approaching social movements and their knowledges: Culture, identity, ethnography 2. Social movements and their knowledges: Feminist and Freirean perspectives on knowledge from below 3. The activist city in an era of free trade 4. Knowledge and capacity building: Popular education in the MNSJ 5. Contesting the neoliberal city: Campaign praxis in the MNSJ 6. Knowledge and the impasse in left politics: Towards a new democratic imaginary?