University and democratization: A training project in action research with social movements

Abstract

Current challenges call for a university that assumes a proactive role in the search for a fairer, more egalitarian and democratic world. This study puts action and transformation at the center of academic work, as training students in epistemologies and research methodologies in addition to providing them with new skills allows them to immerse themselves in the social fabric that can accompany the stabilization of community processes. In this text, we present a project within a master’s in community participation and development, in which the students have supported a process of participation by irruption. The internship is a Participatory Action Research project within the framework of a process of consolidating and recognizing a social center occupied by squatters, and it shows two potentials; it means the university students can be trained in a transformational way, and it allows the students to be the protagonists of dynamics which transcend hegemonic academic methodologies and, through teaching and action, support processes of community coordination and the stabilization of democratizing irruption dynamics.