Popular Education

Spindeln i nätet: Sigfrid Hansson och LOs fackliga bildningsprojekt under 1920- och 1930-talen

by Jenny Jansson

Under 1910-talet utmanades den reformistiska grenen av den svenska arbetarrörelsen av syndikalistiska och... more Under 1910-talet utmanades den reformistiska grenen av den svenska arbetarrörelsen av syndikalistiska och kommunistiska organisationer i Sverige. Utvecklingen är inte unik för Sverige, tvärtom. Uppkomsten av flera olika arbetarorganisationer fick effekten att det plötsligt inte längre fanns bara en enda politisk innebörd i begreppet arbetare  i Sverige utan flera, vilket utmanade de reformistiska organisationerna. Uppkomsten av flera definitioner av arbetaren resulterade i en identitetskris inom framförallt LO, vilket föranledde ledarna för LO att vidta åtgärder. I denna process blev folkbildningsinstitutionerna ett viktigt instrument för att konstruera en enhetlig identitet inom arbetarrörelsen. I centrum för denna process stod en handfull personer som genom sitt engagemang för arbetarrörelsens idéer och för folkbildning kom att spela en viktig roll för bildningsarbetets ställning inom fackföreningsrörelsen. Denna artikel syftar till att framförallt belysa en persons betydelse för folkbildningen som identitetsskapande instrument inom LO, Sigfrid Hansson, och hur hans medverkan fick betydelse för etablerandet av folkbildning som en viktig del av det fackliga arbetet under 1920- och 1930-talen.

"Ungdomens Segrande tro" Unison sång som social och kultiverande folkhögskolepraktik

by Erik Nylander

Master thesis, Department of Sociology. Umeå University

Study Circles in Sweden: An Overview with a Bibliography of International Literature

by Henrik Nordvall

Co-authored with Staffan Larsson, published at Linköping University Electronic Press, 2010.

This text aims to give an overview of the study circles as a tradition and state of the art at present time. The point of departure is primarily the Swedish context, even though there are some comments about study circles elsewhere.

Czy zdolność do oszukiwania uczyniła nas ludźmi?

by Mateusz Hohol

published in 'Granice nauki' (The Limits of Science), in cooperation with 'Interia.pl' (04.04.2012) [scientific article for the general public]

Preface -- Chinese edition of Critical Pedagogy, Ecoliteracy, and Planetary Crisis: The Ecopedagogy Movement (2012)

by Richard Kahn

A statement on the meaning of this book in its English edition is included, and I consider the state of Chinese... more A statement on the meaning of this book in its English edition is included, and I consider the state of Chinese society and its educational opportunities from an ecopedagogical perspective, arguing both that the foundations exist for it and that they MUST exist because China (like the United States) is now one of the future's crucial educational problems that must be taken up if there is to be anything short of a staggering global collapse. The Deweyan Chinese educational philosopher, Tao Xing-Zi is upheld as a possible forerunner for how ecopedagogy might proceed as culturally relevant within a Chinese framework.

Education, empowerment and community based structural reinforcement: An HIV prevention response to mass incarceration and removal

by Laura McTighe

Co-authored with Jeffery Draine (Temple Uniersity) and Philippe Bourgois (University of Pennsylvania)
Published in the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, July 2011

In the context of US urban jails, incarceration is often seen as an opportune intervention point for prevention... more In the context of US urban jails, incarceration is often seen as an opportune intervention point for prevention interventions in public health. For the detained individual, it is an opportunity to reflect on individual choices and the potential for changes in one's life course. For population focused public health professionals, jail detention facilities represent a concentration of health risks, and an opportunity to have an impact on a significant portion of those at risk for HIV and other health concerns. This paper presents an innovative education and empowerment model that bridges across jail walls, beginning on the inside, and continuing on the outside of jail where individuals continue to be challenged and supported toward positive health and social choices. The intervention also seeks to foment community activism in the communities to which jail detainees return, thus aiming to have a structural impact. This paper examines both the intervention model and the challenges of examining the effectiveness claims for the intervention at multiple levels.

Muschelkrebse als Zeugen der Vergangenheit. Zwischen Biologie, Paläontologie und Umweltforschung

by Finn Viehberg

Frenzel, P., Matzke-Karasz, R. & Viehberg, F.A., 2006. Zwischen Biologie, Paläontologie und Umweltforschung. Muschelkrebse als Zeugen der Vergangenheit. Biologie in unserer Zeit 2/2002, 102-108. DOI:10.1002/biuz.200610402

`Education and Culture for the Masses': Sociocultural Debates and Legacies in the Mid-Twentieth Century

by Daniel Melo

published in: Portuguese Studies, Volume 27, Number 2, 15 September 2011, pp. 159-174(16)

One of the fiercest and most important debates in the West in the twentieth century was over the relationship of... more One of the fiercest and most important debates in the West in the twentieth century was over the relationship of intellectuals, the arts, and culture to society and politics. It created lasting misrepresentations, such as the distinction between modernist currents, on the one hand, who allegedly proclaimed `art for art's sake', and other currents that defended a social, interventionist art. In Portugal, neo-realists launched a polemic against supporters of Presença, who were accused of navel-gazing, and thus compromising their position as public intellectuals.

This article, however, attempts to shed new light on the convergences and affinities between intellectuals and movements of distinct aesthetic and ideological heritage in twentieth-century Portugal, particularly with regard to a broad concern with social and sociocultural issues. In order to identify such convergences we examine the social intervention of representative intellectuals and institutions in different fields, namely: the dissemination and popularization of culture; sociocultural activity; the debate over ideas; and the creation of libraries and the support for books and reading, as promulgated by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Media in Action Curriculum

by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe

The product of over two decades of experience, Global Action Project's Media In Action Curriculum is available here for free download. Grab it, read it, use it, adapt it, and tell us how it worked (or didn't) for you.

Global Action Project developed the Media In Action Curriculum through its after-school media arts programs and, more recently, its Media in Action trainings. Media in Action runs multi-day, intergenerational trainings for community organizers who want to harness the power of youth media to move their work further, faster.

Youth Media and Social Change: One Perspective from the Field

by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe

Co-authored with Meghan Mcdermott, Dare Dukes, and Sumitra Rajkumar. Printed in the Youth Media Reporter.

DigiPopEd: Popular Education in Digital Culture

by Dan O'Reilly-Rowe

Published in the Journal of Community Informatics Vol 7 No 3, Jan 2012.

The rise of digitisation has led to a radical rethinking of the way in which research and publishing contribute to... more The rise of digitisation has led to a radical rethinking of the way in which research and publishing contribute to education, particularly with regards to the previously distinct and now rather more unstable categories of knowledge production and consumption. This article explores aspects of the relationship between digital culture and social movements by examining the adoption of digital publishing tools by educators working in the popular education methodology. Using BuildTheWheel.org, an online community oriented towards the sharing of curriculum as a case study, it examines the apparent meshing of some of the principal components of digital culture as outlined by Mark Deuze, with the goals, values, and practices of popular education, and explores the re-imagining of power relations between teacher and student, author and audience, producer and consumer.

Neuroekonomia, czyli o mózgu i pieniądzach

by Mateusz Hohol

published in 'Granice nauki' (The Limits of Science), in cooperation with 'Interia.pl' (30.12.2011) [scientific article for the general public]

Folk Schools, Popular Education, and a Pedagogy of Community Action

by William Westerman

Published in Revolution and Pedagogy, ed. by E. Thomas Ewing, pp. 107-132. New York: Palgrave, 2005.
Reprinted in The Critical Pedagogy Reader, 2nd edition, ed. by Antonia Darder, Marta P. Baltodano, and Rodolfo D. Torres, pp. 541-561. London: Routledge, 2008.

Memy – pasożyty w naszych umysłach

by Mateusz Hohol

published in 'Granice nauki' (The Limits of Science), in cooperation with 'Interia.pl' (08.12.2011) [scientific article for the general public]

Myślenie metaforami, czyli dlaczego "głowa do góry"

by Mateusz Hohol

published in 'Granice nauki' (The Limits of Science), in cooperation with 'Interia.pl' (05.12.2011) [scientific article for the general public]

Engaging with the Bailey Review: blogging, academia and authenticity

by Jamie Heckert

Co-authored with Feona Attwood, Meg Barker, Sara Bragg, Danielle Egan, Adrienne Evans, Laura Harvey, Gail Hawkes, Naomi Holford, Jan Macvarish, Amber Martin, Alan McKee, Sharif Mowlabocus, Susanna Paasonen, Emma Renold, Jessica Ringrose, Ludi Valentine, Anne Frances Watson and Liesbet van Zoonen. Published in Psychology & Sexuality, 2011.

This article reproduces and discusses a series of blog posts posted by academics in anticipation of the report on... more This article reproduces and discusses a series of blog posts posted by academics in anticipation of the report on commercialisation, sexualisation and childhood, ‘Letting Children Be Children’ by Reg Bailey for the UK Department of Education in June 2011. The article discusses the difficulty of ‘translating’ scholarly work for the public in a context where ‘impact’ is increasingly important and the challenges that academics face in finding new ways of speaking about sex in public.

Dlaczego człowiek jest z natury dobry?

by Mateusz Hohol

published in 'Granice nauki' (The Limits of Science), in cooperation with 'Interia.pl' (14.11.2011) [scientific article for the general public]

Study circles and Democracy in Sweden

by Staffan Larsson

Conference paper, later rewritten into articles, which have been published in different languages:

Larsson, S. (2001) Seven aspects of democracy as related to study circles. International Journal of Lifelong Education. Vol. 20. No 3, pp 199 - 217.

Larsson, S. (2001) Les cercles d’etude et la democratie en Suède. Education Permanente. No 149/2001-4. Pp. 231 – 255 /Study circles and democracy in Sweden/

Larsson, S. (2002) Study circles as a Democratic Utopia. Organon, A Quarterly Journal of Philosophy, Literature and the Humanities. No 20, Summer 2002. (In Farsi - Perse)

Larsson, S. (2007) Seven aspects of democracy as related to study circles. Aductar, No 1 (11) pp. 8 – 20. (in Russian)

The Study circles in Sweden are presented: Their history, development and also how they operate in the lives of the... more The Study circles in Sweden are presented: Their history, development and also how they operate in the lives of the participants. The study circles are then discussed from the perspective of democracy. In this scrutiny of the how democracy is related to study circles is seven aspects of the concept of democracy discerned.

Making sense of the Social Forum: On the local framing of a fashionable global symbol

by Henrik Nordvall

Published (2009) in Journal of Contemporary Ethnography [SAGE publications] 38 (4): 435-464.

The worldwide emergence of Social Forums (SF), originating from Porto Alegre (Brazil) in 2001, is a key element in the... more The worldwide emergence of Social Forums (SF), originating from Porto Alegre (Brazil) in 2001, is a key element in the movement for global justice. A growing body of literature on the forums concerns its function as a transnational venue for civil society and a global symbol for resistance against neoliberalism. However, little empirical research is carried out on the local meanings of the widespread SFs. This article reports on a case study on the organizational process of a local forum in a Swedish town. The analysis focuses on intra-coalitional interaction among activists from the labor movement, Attac and a local cultural institution. The importance of considering local framing processes and the often-neglected influence of fashion, when studying the emergence of social forums is emphasized. Findings show how the dichotomy the Old vs. the New became crucial in the framing process. Framed as a novelty contrasted with “old” socialist values, the SF was rejected by the labor movement activists as just another expression of a contemporary neoliberal trend of depolitization. Implications for the study of the social forum phenomenon are discussed.

Tanulókörök Svédországban: Áttekintés a nemzetközi irodalom bibliográfiájával

by Henrik Nordvall

Co-authored with Staffan Larsson. Published 2010 by Budapest Környéki Népfőiskolai Szövetség. ISBN 978-963-08-0757-9. Hungarian translation (by Bozsó Péter) of the publication "Study circles in Sweden: An Overview with a Bibliography of International Literature" (Linköping Univeristy Electronic Press, 2010)