Critical Political Thought, Activism, and Alternative Futures

Members: Colin Coulter, Laurence Cox, Tony Cunningham, Mary Murphy, Aileen O’Carroll, Theresa O’Keefe 

Co-ordinator: Laurence Cox

Aims of the Cluster:

The primary aim of this research cluster is to subject existing configurations of power to critical questioning, and to explore the roles of radical theory and social activism in generating alternative futures based on such principles as equality, direct democracy, autonomy and social and environmental justice.  

In keeping with the spirit that animated its creation, this research cluster is decidedly activist-oriented. All of the members of the research cluster are students of social activism in one form or another, and our varied understandings of the means and ends of social change are informed by our practical participation in a wide range of campaigns and social movements. At the same time, we regard ourselves as critical intellectuals faced with the frequently contradictory tasks of pursuing the truth, joining truth to power and opposing truth to power.

While the members of the research cluster approach the subject matter from a wide range of political perspectives, we are united by our common desire to promote free and critical thinking that is linked to democratic social movements and points towards an alternative social order. Research themes of particular interest to cluster members include contemporary anti-capitalism and the global justice movement, anarchism and the politics of utopia, Marxism, feminism, green localism, sexual politics and the politics of masculinity, critical pedagogy and popular education, counter-cultures, working-class studies, political violence, class and gender politics in contemporary Northern Ireland, and post-Celtic Tiger Ireland.