Department of Sociology & Anthropology

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Browsing Department of Sociology & Anthropology by Author "Haiven, Max"

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    Between Success and Failure: Dwelling with Social Movements in the Hiatus
    (2013) Khasnabish, Alex; Haiven, Max
    This article explores the ways social movement “successes” and “failures” are conceived of and measured, particularly in relation to research that strives to act in solidarity with such movements . Reviewing some of the best examples of politically - engaged research , we contend that even these assume normative categories of “success” and “failure” with respect to both move ment and research outcomes. Drawing on o ur work in the Radical Imagination Project, a politically - e ngaged social movement research project in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, we argue that social movements typically dwell not at the poles of the success/failure binary but in the “hiatus” between “not - success” and “not - failure.” We contend that a more dynamic mapping of social movement success an d failure produces a richer and more robust und erstanding of social movements, the significance of their activity, and social change. This reconceptualization and remapping of success and failure also has important implications for the way researchers seek ing to work in solidarity with social movements can productively reimagine their own measures of succes s and failure .
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    Convoking the Radical Imagination: Social Movement Research, Dialogic Methodologies and Scholarly Vocations
    (2012) Khasnabish, Alex; Haiven, Max
    This article reflects critically on “The Radial Imagination: A Research Project About Movements, Social Change, and the Future,” an engaged social movement research project conducted with self-identified “radical” activists in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. In so doing, the authors explore a research strategy that seeks not merely to observe the radical imagination—the ability to envision and work toward better futures—but to convoke it: to mobilize the singular location of academic inquiry to create a research environment within which the radical imagination can be better understood. Through a critical examination of the project’s theoretical architecture and methodological framework the authors investigate the promises, possibilities, and difficulties implicated in critical social movement research carried out through a strategy of convocation, contrasting it with more conventional approaches to social movement research.