Autonomous Activist-Research. The case of the squatters' movement in Madrid

Citizen participation has been recently incorporated in the design and implementation of different public policies but participants have often criticised that there is little room for autonomous modes of citizen participation within institutional frameworks. Which are the specific features of autonomous processes of citizen participation compared to the most institutional ones? How does autonomous participation develop? This article deals with the methodological aspects of autonomous participation. In doing so, we will present an experience of autonomous activist-research within the squatters' movement of Madrid which lasted for two and a half years. In particular, we focus on the methodological decisions taken by activist-researchers and describe the major contributions of this participatory process. We argue that such an activist-research process was based upon three different strategies which provided a productive framework for the participants' involvement: a) an open, horizontal and self-managed group of activist-researchers; b) an open-source and copy-left commitment in order to fulfill an equal access to the production of knowledge; c) a qualitative and comprehensive methodology which allowed to gather a wide range of information taking into account the social diversity within the squatters' movement