Participant and co-operative research within a social movement of recyclable materials collectors Methodological reflections on a long-term political praxis

Abstract

This article presents methodological reflections on a participant research within the National Movement of Recyclable Materials Collectors (MNCR) in Brazil. It emphasises methodological aspects of the researchers’ long-term participation in the process of questioning and denaturalising of political, social, and economic inequalities by the collectors, understood as subjects of their selforganisation. It addresses quality criteria for long-term participant research, and the role of the scholar in the tension between engaging in social movement and being an integral part of academic life. The development of a master’s thesis and of a doctoral dissertation between 2010 and 2016 sets the background. This article is a systematisation of the hermeneutic practice focusing on the research relations and processes of sharing of meanings between actors and researcher, aiming at the improvement of the subjects’ political praxis.