The Social Movements Work Team consolidates and amplifies the Institute's continuing work with sectoral groups, people's movements and community organizations. Its initiatives were initially hinged on research and documentation of particular social movements including peasants, labor, the urban poor, women, and indigenous peoples.These studies were perceived as ventures to encourage and facilitate reflexivity within and among social movements. The process of collectively weaving narratives, which went into the documentation of sectoral initiatives, provided these movements with the reflexive space to probe the dynamics and nuances of collective action as well as harness insights and lessons from shared struggles in a deliberative effort to enhance existing repertoires of resistance.

This logic continues to inform and inspire the Team's work alongside movements. The Team endeavors to provide a venue for continuing intra- and inter- movement dialogue and exchange, geared toward the promotion, critique, theorizing and revitalization of social movements. These encounters of discourses are carried out in various avenues alongside sustained interaction with various organizations and sectoral groups through platforms such as the:

• Activist School Residential Course,
• Study Circle,
• Activist School Film and Lecture Series, a bi-monthly learning event participated in by activists from left as well as non-left traditions, to provoke theorizing, discourse building and sustained exchanges among various movements who wish to effect societal change launched in October 2005. Since its inception, it has organized six sessions tackling themes that ranged from the the political crisis, the corporate question, youth and student movements, and military activism.
• Activist School Journal, a publication launched in conjuction with the AS Film and Lecture series, showcasing the written works of individuals from various groups and movements reflecting on series themes. Titles include: 'Tipping Point: Ano pa bang hinihintay natin?”, “Six Propositions and a Funeral”, “Screening of the Corporation”, “First Quarter Storm”, “Military Activism” and “State of the Nation's Alternatives”