Research, activism and social transformation in the post-earthquake The experience of collective, public and bottom-up research between criticism and perspectives

In December 2016 the research project on the post-earthquake of the Central Apennines and the research group Emidio of Treviri was born. It generated a collective and self-organized research experience, oriented to a militant approach, which for over two years studies and returns the various aspects of the post-earthquake. This experience showed both the potential of this kind of research practice, based on a continuous interaction with the subjects involved in the post-disaster processes, and its implicit limits.Our proposal starts from empirical research, yet with the aim of providing theoretical evaluations on the emancipatory potential of a critical social science, systematizing its risks and opportunities, as we have faced them during our field experience. The paper focuses in particular on the issues of the internal organization of the group, the organizational balance between efficiency and self-management, the methodologies and research techniques employed in relation to the pursued aims (methodological level); on the relationship with political and academic structures, in terms of opportunities and risks, sustainability and planning of the activity (epistemological level); on the transformative power of field-research, i.e. the ability to influence social processes (political level). The aim of the work is the critical analysis of a public (Buroway, 2007) and collective research process with the ultimate intent of relaunching its innovative scope in the processes of social change and its central role in the production, accumulation and sharing of knowledge.