The Ups and Downs of Feminist Activist Research: Positional Reflections

Abstract

Trained in the fields of ecological economics and political ecology, we are four women activist-researchers motivated by and interested in contributing to processes of social transformation. In this chapter, we make visible part of our critical thinking process in academia, departing from our experience in the fields of food sovereignty, commons and institutions, climate change, and environmental justice. Our common base ground at the Barcelona School of Ecological Economics and our similar experiences in Participatory Action Research processes in the Global North and Global South converge in this chapter. Connecting the theoretical learning with our activist role in the field, we pretend to invite an exercise of feminist reflexivity that implies reflecting on the positionality of us as activist-researchers: the challenges, the ups and downs we have experienced, and the mutual support woven into these processes. Such exercise contributes to open new windows for a radical critic to neoliberal academia and a transformative change needed in our way of doing transdisciplinary science.