About the architect-researcher-militant and lessons from Geography

Abstract

This article seeks to debate, in an essayistic way, the possibilities and challenges of militant research within the field of Architecture and Urbanism, bringing lessons from the field of Geography. The intention here is to discuss the academic and scientific practices, not through pragmatic proposals about the method, but through an initial reflection regarding the methodological positioning of the architect-researcher-militant – a professional whose presence is getting common nowadays. I argue that it is necessary to shift the focus from the construction of a new role for the architect, a current discussion in the field of Architecture, to the collective construction of architecture as a verb, practiced together with other actors, such as urban social movements. Based on lessons from Geography, I seek to outline possibilities to overcome challenges of the research and the struggle for social transformation, also trying to delimit the issues that specifically permeate Architecture as a field in this task.