Social Movements and Action Research Tools
For this specialization we advise you to register in the Major Human Rights, Gender and Conflict Studies: Social Justice Perspectives (SJP) but other Majors also give access to this specialization.
This specialization is geared towards professionals wanting to reflect and learn (in a peer-to-peer environment) about strategies and achievements to promoting social change.
Social Movements and Action Research Tools offers students two complementary courses:
- Students can acquire a solid background in social movement theories, as well as in recent debates on civil society, NGOs, and civic-driven change. Participants’ own activist experiences will be the point of departure for this course, which is dealing with some of the key academic debates on social movements and social transformation.
- The SMART specialization offers a hands-on course in ‘Participatory Approaches and Action Research Methods’, including tools for alternative forms of knowledge production and political visibility.
Students are advised also to do another 4 ECTS Research techniques course of their choice (such as qualitative interviewing, survey techniques, or discourse analysis). Participants who would prefer to extend the participatory research methods course with an extra 4 ECTS credits can do so as well.
In close consultation with the course leaders, it is possible to do a short research internship with an organization of their choice (in the Netherlands or abroad) to provide a learning experience in a different socio-political setting.
Courses
- Social Movements, NGOs, and Civil Society
- Participatory Approaches and Action Research (4 EC)
- Internship in combination with course 3306 (4 EC) or another 4 EC Research Techniques course
Teaching staff
Kees Biekart, Rosalba Icaza, Silke Heumann, Jun Borras, Rachel Kurian, Amrita Chhachhi, Helen Hintjens, Karin Siegmann, Wendy Harcourt
