Scholar-activism as an object of study in a diverse literature: preconditions, forms, and implications
Bashiri, Farzana LU ; Perez Vico, Eugenia LU and Hylmö, Anders LU
(2025)
In Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
12.
p.1-14
- Abstract
- Scholar-activism—academic scholars engaging in some form of activism—has recently become a prominent phenomenon as we witness calls for scholars to engage in political, social, and environmental causes that go beyond their traditional academic duties. An emerging literature focuses on scholar-activism as an object of study. However, the literature is scattered across rather disconnected disciplines and research fields, with few empirically and theoretically well-grounded studies. In this paper, we review this literature and identify the diverse ways in which the phenomenon of scholar-activism has been studied, what is known, and what remains to be explored. This study is based on a systematic scoping literature review drawing on a diverse... (More)
- Scholar-activism—academic scholars engaging in some form of activism—has recently become a prominent phenomenon as we witness calls for scholars to engage in political, social, and environmental causes that go beyond their traditional academic duties. An emerging literature focuses on scholar-activism as an object of study. However, the literature is scattered across rather disconnected disciplines and research fields, with few empirically and theoretically well-grounded studies. In this paper, we review this literature and identify the diverse ways in which the phenomenon of scholar-activism has been studied, what is known, and what remains to be explored. This study is based on a systematic scoping literature review drawing on a diverse set of 85 publications from fields such as sociology, geography, management studies, and pedagogy. From the inductive analysis of the papers, three major themes emerge: preconditions, forms, and implications of scholar-activism.Preconditions refer to individual, organisational, and institutional factors conditioning engagement in scholar-activism. Forms involve the various ways in which scholar-activism is enacted, including activist research, teaching, and collaboration. The implications include individual, epistemic, and societal consequences of scholar-activism. The findings of this study provide insights into the growing but still diverse literature on scholar-activism and identify areas for future research and theoretical development. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/2706593d-edd1-47a8-82d4-9100488a41ed
- author
- Bashiri, Farzana
LU
; Perez Vico, Eugenia
LU
and Hylmö, Anders
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-08-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
- volume
- 12
- article number
- 1266
- pages
- 1 - 14
- publisher
- Springer Nature
- ISSN
- 2662-9992
- DOI
- 10.1057/s41599-025-05573-6
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 2706593d-edd1-47a8-82d4-9100488a41ed
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-07 10:10:03
- date last changed
- 2025-08-08 09:28:48
@article{2706593d-edd1-47a8-82d4-9100488a41ed,
abstract = {{Scholar-activism—academic scholars engaging in some form of activism—has recently become a prominent phenomenon as we witness calls for scholars to engage in political, social, and environmental causes that go beyond their traditional academic duties. An emerging literature focuses on scholar-activism as an object of study. However, the literature is scattered across rather disconnected disciplines and research fields, with few empirically and theoretically well-grounded studies. In this paper, we review this literature and identify the diverse ways in which the phenomenon of scholar-activism has been studied, what is known, and what remains to be explored. This study is based on a systematic scoping literature review drawing on a diverse set of 85 publications from fields such as sociology, geography, management studies, and pedagogy. From the inductive analysis of the papers, three major themes emerge: preconditions, forms, and implications of scholar-activism.Preconditions refer to individual, organisational, and institutional factors conditioning engagement in scholar-activism. Forms involve the various ways in which scholar-activism is enacted, including activist research, teaching, and collaboration. The implications include individual, epistemic, and societal consequences of scholar-activism. The findings of this study provide insights into the growing but still diverse literature on scholar-activism and identify areas for future research and theoretical development.}},
author = {{Bashiri, Farzana and Perez Vico, Eugenia and Hylmö, Anders}},
issn = {{2662-9992}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{08}},
pages = {{1--14}},
publisher = {{Springer Nature}},
series = {{Humanities and Social Sciences Communications}},
title = {{Scholar-activism as an object of study in a diverse literature: preconditions, forms, and implications}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05573-6}},
doi = {{10.1057/s41599-025-05573-6}},
volume = {{12}},
year = {{2025}},
}