A Brief Profile of Activism Foundation for Social Research & Action
Bridging Knowledge and Action, Transforming Everyday Life
About us
Social research should not be done only in the realm of the ivory tower. Rather, social research has the potential to comprehend, connect to and effect the minutiae of individual human experience. Activism Foundation for Social Research and Action subscribes to this belief. We believe in connecting research to action by using the tools of the social sciences to address the individual, interpersonal, institutional and community issues that individuals face in their daily lives. Our approach, Active Social Science, involves not only a research-based inquiry involving existing and innovative social research methods into everyday social issues, but also a connection to respondents and an effort to comprehend the contexts in which they live in order to create context-appropriate options for dealing with those issues. At the core of our approach is a belief that knowledge is useful when it empowers individuals to act and social research is effective when it promotes human efficacy, combats in equity and allows individuals to have greater control over their own lives.
Registration
Activism began its journey on 19th March 2016 in the name of Activism Social Science Club. It was registered as a charity with name as Activism Foundation for Social Research & Action with motto, “Charity through Knowledge” under Rule 21 of the West Bengal Registration Rules, 1962, and was stamped as per Article 58A of the Indian Stamp Act, 1899 under Schedule IA and was registered at the Office of the A.D.S.R., Cossipore, Dum Dum under Deed No. IV-1506-00386 dated 30th May 2018.
The Foundation currently operates through two wings
1. Activism Social ScienceClub (ASSC): ASSC is mainly driven by student volunteers. The Club undertakes individual and institutional case studies on issues in everyday life. Students’ debates are held on contemporary social issues. The biannual vernacular little magazine Ekka-Dokka is also published by the Club.
2. Activism Scholars Forum (ASF): ASF undertakes field-based social research on issues of everyday life. It publishes a biannual open access, peer reviewed e-journal Criticality (ISSN: 2584-0738) in English since 2023. The journal is indexed with Crossref, having DOI registration for articles and is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC 4.0 licence. ASF also holds an annual national seminar each year and regularly arranges special lectures on various topics from the humanities and the social sciences fostering critical academic engagement and dialogue.