Movements, academia, and social processes of knowledge production

Movements, academia, and social processes of knowledge production: reflections on pedagogy and public spheres

Do universities possess a privilege status in knowledge production? Can current social movements such as the World Social Forum and the Occupy movement challenge the way knowledge is produced today? What are our roles as academics in the social processes of knowledge production?

This talk will link the notion of critical pedagogy to broader social processes of knowledge production taking place outside or at the borders of academia. Developing a conception of social movements such as the World Social Forum (WSF) and the Occupy Movement as knowledge producers, this talk will show that radial spaces such as this can facilitate pedagogical encounters across difference, providing concrete examples from the practices of alternative media activists. It will highlight that the significance of these movements lies in the emphasis that activists place on collective knowledge production and mutual learning in their search for alternatives. Both the WSF and Occupy can be conceived as efforts to create public spheres in which academic and other forms of knowledge intersect in creative ways, raising questions about the privileged status of the university and the role that we as academic practitioners might play in broader social processes of knowledge production.

Refreshments will be served.
The event is free, but space is limited. To confirm a place please RSVP to Jennifer Fraser, j.fraser@bbk.ac.uk.

About Hilde C. Stephansen
Hilde C. Stephansen is a Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow in the Department of Sociology and a Research Fellow in the Centre for the Study of Global Media and Democracy at Goldsmiths, University of London. She recently received a PhD in Sociology for a thesis which explored the character and significance of media and communication in the World Social Forum, focusing on their relationship to processes of knowledge production and to the politics of place and scale in transnational social movement networks. Her research interests include the World Social Forum and social movements; alternative/citizens' media and new communications technologies; media, participation and public spheres; feminist and non-Western epistemologies; 'global' ethnography and the politics of research; activism and academia.

Hosted by the Centre for Media, Culture and Creative Practice and the Birkbeck Critical Pedagogies Group