Alberto Fierro

The present proposal focuses on decolonial and participatory paths to knowledge production. With the MTST (Homeless Workers’ Movement) ‘ a Brazilian social movement that has been struggling against intersecting inequalities for almost 25 years ‘ we will constitute a group of activist researchers to develop knowledge that helps the movement fight for a more just society. This proposal moves from a body of academic and non-academic work that criticizes traditional research approaches towards the goal to explore and push the existing boundaries between scholarship and activism. Our collaborative research’s central objective is to enhance the skills of the activist researchers while at the same time developing knowledge that is useful for the MTST. The present proposal asks two intertwined questions: first, what knowledge has the movement mobilized during almost 25 years of struggle in the Brazilian urban peripheries? Second, how can we best investigate and systematize activists’ insights and expertise? The contribution of this research to anthropology is showing how to develop theoretical knowledge that is both engaged ‘ it serves the purpose of helping people to fight inequalities ‘ and decolonial ‘ it comes from those subjects who have been historically discriminated against and deemed objects of investigation.