I have just completed a 30-month research project called “Hearing Each Other: Feminisms, socialisms and pacifisms in movements against war and for peace: from common goals to coherent actions”. It was funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, Un Monde par Tous, the Lipman-Milliband Trust, the Wm.A.Cadbury Trust and the Maypole Fund.
I have signed a contract with Palgrave Macmillan for the publication of this as a book, in early 2012, with the title Antimilitarism: Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements.
The fieldwork for this action-research project began on 1 September 2008 and ended on 31 August 2010. My aim in the project was ‘to engage with, to study and to understand, in order to influence and make more effective’ particular antimilitarist, antiwar and peace movements in a series of national and international contexts. I approached a range of organizations in a series of case studies, seeking to clarify their analyses, strategies, values and alliances, bringing to a study of the entire range of ‘peace politics’ a specifically feminist analysis.
The project design involved a number of case studies. They are of War Resisters International based in the UK; the Alternativa Antimilitarista MOC in Spain; the International Action Network on Small Arms (with special reference to Uganda); the anti-NATO movement in Europe; a local movement against the Israeli Occupation of Palestine in the UK city of Leicester; the women’s movement against military violence in Okinawa, Japan; and the movements for the demilitarization and reunification in South Korea.
During the fieldwork period I simultaneously engaged in activities within the movements studied, prompting encounters and organizing discussions. This is an ‘action research’ aim which is favoured by my funders, especially the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust.
I have been lucky to have as research partners in particular case studies Naoko Ikeda, Ellie Kim and Sarah Masters.
