Maria I. Casas-Cortes

This dissertation explores the appropriation of research as an activist tool by social movements in Spain. It focuses on a prolific women’s collective based in Madrid, who are studying the gendered effects of changing labor patterns in the globalizing metropolis of Madrid. Through feminist research expeditions in the city, their goal is to develop innovative political actions appropriate to current transformations. Ethnographic work on this emergent trend of activist research demonstrates how civil society efforts are engaging processes of global restructuring, in this case its effects in the European Union, through the production of knowledge. This dissertation then speaks to the implications of grassroots research initiatives for the democratization of knowledge by social movements.