ABSTRACT
The chapter provides a brief outline of the nature, purpose and outcomes of both research and activism. It looks at how the academic and activist fields are structured by different rules and modes of symbolic and material recognition that can sometimes come into conflict, particularly in current times of neoliberalism and austerity. The chapter focuses on disability rights monitoring to illustrate some of the tensions that arise when attempting to develop emancipatory and activist research but also the possibilities that this approach has opened up for disability rights struggles in Portugal. It argues that emancipatory research that exposes the discrimination that disabled people experience in their everyday lives is today ever more needed to support local and global struggles for disability rights and a fully inclusive society. The chapter provides a bit of theoretical background. Bridging the two worlds–of science and of activism–to address disability issues seems like an impossible mission.
