THEORY AND PRACTICE IN

ACTIVIST POLICY RESEARCH

Ghulam Hussain
•Workshop outline
•Research Activity: online social media search
•Ideological and political underpinnings of doing research
•War of narratives, perception management
•Component of Activist Policy research in the age of social media
•Engaged Anthropology
•Triangulation in activist research
•Activist Research to policy research and policymaking
•The role of think tanks, scope of policy research
 RESEARCH ACTIVITY
•Please run the search on twitter
and YouTube
• Hindu woman abducted
• Tasks:
• Assess the authenticity of the
report
• How to authenticate the media
report?
 VERIFYING THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

•Then listen to the rejoinder by a Bheel

activist Poonjo Bheel (PPP leader) who
thinks differently and tells the actual
story behind the scene.

• https://web.facebook.com/Sheikh.h
amdan3901/videos/6215341557599
00/
 R E S E A RC H I N T H E P O S T- T R U T H S O C IE T Y

1. Hybrid warfare, cyberwarfare, War of narratives, perception

management
2. Human rights paradigm, claims to universalism, global capitalist imperialism
and Western Eurocentric hegemony.

• Nation-state hegemony versus transnationalism in an age of postmodernity

1. Disinformation, fake News and, Yellow Journalism
2. Sensationalism media cells of interest groups, political parties, and state
organizations
3. Investigative Journalism?
 IS THERE NO WAY TO VERIFY THE
REPORTED FACT?

•The virtue of science is that it is incremental and there is no absolute truth. All conclusions are refutable
and are offered only tentatively that can be further supported or rejected though further verifiable
evidence.
•So, while the field is still open to question, challenge, and eventually even refute the previous findings, it
does not guarantee that people will believe your truth till it is disseminated in virtual spaces with the
similar intensity and speed as the established ‘truth’ that one questions or challenges.
•For some of researchers, options are still open to stick to our ‘truth’, and this commitment to truth turns
them into activist researcher, engaged anthropologists and in certain cases to policy research.
 ACTIVIST RESEARCH
Netnography, Social
Media ethnography

• Activist research follows Immanent approach to research,

Social Media
standpoint epistemology Action Research
Activism
• To stand by the truth/facts that one verifies in process.
• ‘Dual commitments’, that is, not only seeking to advance
social science agendas, but also to bring value to those
movements and activists under study.
• To support the needy, poor, or oppressed while documenting
their lived experiences. Policy
Advocacy research
• Components of Activist Research Reserach
• Netnography, Social media activism, policy research,
engaged anthropology, advocacy research Engaged
anthropology/Patici
pant-as-observer
T R I A N G U L AT I O N I N A C T I V I S T R E S E A R C H

Participant
observation

Legislator Netnography

Social media
Think tank
activism

Triangulation

Academic
Civil soceity
literature

political party/ Vernacular

political leader literature
 WHOSE SAY MATT ERS IN ACTIVIST RESEARCH?

•It is the research that prioritizes community voices reinforces

community engagement, supporting resident-activists who are engaged
with their surroundings and fostering anthropological study that supports
the goals of community activism.
•Ethnography of activism critically reflects on the porous epistemic border
between activism and research.
 ENGAGED ANTHROPOLOGY

•Radical ethnography, radical empathy

•Engagement takes place during field- work; through applied practice; in institutions
such as IPS, Karachi University etc., health department, a corporation, media as a
journalist etc.
•Forms of engagement: (1) sharing and support, (2) teaching and public education, (3)
social critique, (4)
collaboration, (5) advocacy, and (6) activism.
•Engagement can be in marginal spaces such as among Dalit communities; as individual
activists working in the context of war, terrorism, environmental injustice, human
rights, and violence.
 A C T I V I S T R E S E A R C H M AY L E A D T O S O C I A L R E F O R M AT I O N
AND POLITICAL ACTIVISM

•Activist ethnographers not only

produce new understandings of
contemporary forms of collective
action, but also seek to contribute to
struggles for social change.
•The Dalit Sujag Tehreek (DST) is a
movement and organization
representing the scheduled caste (Dalit)
Hindu communities in Pakistan. Its core
committee consists of 21 persons from
different scheduled caste Hindu
communities like Kolhi, Bheel,
Meghwar, Oad, Bhagri etc.
•https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalit_Suj
ag_Tehreek
 
 A C T I V I S T R E S E A R C H M AY L EA D TO PO LI C Y
R E S E A R C H O R M AY I M PA C T P O LI C Y M A K I N G

•Example: IPS study on the narrative of forced

conversion
•During the course of research, the study has
been presented at various national and
international forums including Watson Institute
for International and Public Affairs at Brown
University of USA, The Council of Islamic
Ideology, One Man Commission Constituted by
the Supreme Court of Pakistan on minority
affairs, Islamabad Bar Association, and
Shaybani Foundation.
 ACTIVIST RESEARCH IN THE AGE OF
MEDIA/ SOCIAL MEDIA AND
INTERNET

I did that through social media WhatsApp

engagement with various anti-caste

activists communicating through
social media groups, chat boxes,
WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, Website Twitter

Facebook pages, but also cell

Netnography
phone communication or texting.

YouTube Facebook
 MAKING USE OF ONLINE SPACES

• It follows most of the protocols of traditional

academic research but contextualize them by
positioning herself as the activist for a cause.
•Filling research gap, credibility (must be trained),
reliability (repeatable, sound methodology),
verifiability (links to meta-data and references).
•Intersubjectivity or Objectivism?
•Reflexivity or the disinterested third person
posture?
•Research ethics: informed consent in the semi-
literate traditional society/community.
•Research ethics in writing: verifiability, Plagiarism
https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/2jkvh687
n6/1
 NETNOGRAPHY/ INTERNET ETHNOGRAPHY

• Using search engines

• Google Ngram viewer
• Google Trends
• https://trends.google.com/t
rends/explore?cat=16&date
=all&q=Forced%20conversio
n
 THE ROLE OF THINK TANKS
•A think tank, or policy institute, is a research and
advocacy-based institute.
• Policy research mediates between the academic
research and policymaking at national and
international level, and think tanks are meant to
perform that task systematically.
•More than 7,500 think tanks exist worldwide
•IPS ranks 38 in the
2020 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report for
2020 Top Think Tanks in South and Southeast Asia
and the Pacific (excluding India) .
•Most think tanks are non-governmental
organization, such as IPS, but some are semi-
autonomous agencies within government such as
IPRI or are associated with particular political
parties such as HSF and FES, and also with
businesses or the military.
•Funding sources: Think-tank funding often
includes a combination of donations from wealthy
individuals and personal contributions, with many
also accepting government grants.
 THEMES IN POLICY RESEARCH

Government

•Typical themes in Pakistan: Pak- State

Businesses or
departments/
Afghan relations, Indo-Pak relations, corporations
Institutions

Sino-Indian Indian relations,

Kashmir issue, Human rights,
minority rights, Interfaith dialogue. Political Think International
Party/Politician
Tank Organisations

•Typical topics: social policy, political

strategy, foreign affairs,
international relation, economics, Policy
Reserach Civil Society
military, technology, culture, Institution

religion, interfaith harmony. Academia

RESEARCH PROCESS IN A THINK TANK

• Policy Brief
• Expert opinion, seminar Publicatio
• Issue Brief Advocacy/
• Distribution/Dissemination
• Opinion making
Reserach • Reserach report
• Fieldwork/Primary research
n•• Research paper • Lobbying
Outreach
• Seminar/Webinar
Book
 MODUS OPERANDI

• Papers in policy
journals, policy briefs,
draft legislation,
workshops,
seminars/webinars,
symposium, personal
meetings with
bureaucrats,
legislators, judges,
ministers.
 S C O P E O F P O L I C Y R E S E A R C H : C R I T I C A L A N A LY S I S
OF IPS WEBSITE

Overview by Sayed Nadeem

Farhat Gillani
 POLICY BRIEFS

•Policy Briefs…instant
recommendations based on informed
opinion
•A policy brief is a concise summary of
a particular issue, the policy options to
deal with it, and some
recommendations on the best option.
It is aimed at government policymakers
and others who are interested in
formulating or influencing policy. Policy
briefs can take different formats.
 HOW POLICY RESEARCH MAY HELP
VERIFY MEDIA REPORTAGE

• How policy research may help understand the actual and

the hidden side of the social phenomenon and issue at
hand? It can also help verify the media reportage or the
claims made by certain politicians.
• “
'Forced conversion' of minor creates uproar in Thar's Hin
du community
”
• “The PML-N MNA from Thar and chief of the Pakistan
Hindu Council, Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, has
expressed his concern over the alleged abduction and the
subsequent conversion of Raveeta. "A Hindu girl below
18 years of age cannot be converted according to the
Hindu Marriage Act," he told Dawn.
• https://www.dawn.com/news/1339910
•https://www.dawn.com/news/1339910
 SCOPE OF POLICY RESEARCH: RESEARCH ON
PROSUMERS AND SOLAR ENERGY
HAMZA NAEEM

•Issue Brief: Techno-economic

analysis of Net-metered Solar
PV Systems for Residential
Households in Pakistan
•https://www.ips.org.pk/issue-b
rief-techno-economic-analysis-
of-net-metered-solar-photovolt
aic-systems-for-residential-hou
seholds-in-pakistan/
•Readings

• Sally Engle Merry (2005) Anthropology and Activism: Researching Human Rights across Porous Boundaries. Political and Legal Anthropology Review , November
2005, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 240-257. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24497696
• Maharawal, Manissa, "Affective Afterlives: An Ethnography of Activism Between Movements" (2017). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2259
• Stephen Danley (2018) An activist in the field: Social media, ethnography, and community, Journal of Urban Affairs, DOI: 10.1080/07352166.2018.1511797
• Christa Craven, Dána-Ain Davis (2013) Feminist Activist Ethnography: Counterpoints to Neoliberalism in North America. Lexington Books, 04-Apr-2013 - 276 page
• George W. Smith (1990) Research article: Political Activist as Ethnographer by. Social Problems, Volume 37, Issue 4, 1, Pages 629 648, 
https://doi.org/10.2307/800586
• Fang, Lee (15 September 2021). "Intelligence Contract Funneled to Pro-War Think Tank Establishment". The Intercept. Retrieved 9 October 2021.
• McGann, James G.; Weaver, Robert Kent (1 January 2002). Think Tanks and Civil Societies: Catalysts for Ideas and Action. Transaction Publishers. p. 51. ISBN 978-
1-4128-3989-1.
• Fischer, Frank; Miller, Gerald J. (21 December 2006). "Public Policy Analysis and Think Tanks, by Diane Stone". Handbook of Public Policy Analysis: Theory,
Politics, and Methods. CRC Press. pp. 149–157. ISBN 978-1-4200-1700-7.
• Selee, Andrew Dan (31 July 2013). What Should Think Tanks Do?: A Strategic Guide to Policy Impact. Stanford University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8047-8929-5.
• Juris, J. S. (2016). Reflections on# Occupy Everywhere: Social media, public space, and emerging logics of aggregation. Youth, space and time, 385-414.
• Low, S. (2014). Spatializing culture: An engaged anthropological approach to space and place (2014). In The people, place, and space reader (pp. 68-72).
Routledge.
• Low, Setha M., and Sally Engle Merry. "Engaged anthropology: diversity and dilemmas: an introduction to supplement 2." Current anthropology 51.S2 (2010):
S203-S226.
• Low, Setha M. "Claiming space for an engaged anthropology: spatial inequality and social exclusion." American anthropologist 113.3 (2011): 389-407.
• Sutherland, N (Aug 29, 2012) Activist ethnography and social movements: Opportunities and potentialities (Conference paper)
• Chari, Sharad, and Henrike Donner. "Ethnographies of activism: A critical introduction." Cultural Dynamics 22.2 (2010): 75-85.
• Maharawal, Manissa M. Affective Afterlives: An Ethnography of Activism Between Movements. City University of New York, 2017.
• 
•Journals on visual, social media and engaged anthropology
•Key journals
•Visual Activism , Visual Anthropology Review , Visual Anthropology , Practicing Anthropology , Current Anthropology, Cultural Dynamics, American Anthropologist