Laboratories of Learning: Social Movements, Education and Knowledge-Making in the Global South

Group Submission Type: Book Launch

Description of Session

This book explores the ways that social movements are important but often overlooked ‘laboratories of learning’ and rich sources of knowledge-making. Drawing on the findings from a three -year collaborative research project developed in collaboration with activists and social movements in Turkey, Colombia, Nepal and South Africa, it argues that social movements in the Global South, struggling in some of the most complex and conflict-affected contexts, can offer us exciting, innovative insights into the myriad of ways that movements learn and produce knowledge as they struggle for a better world. The book builds on four co-produced social movement case studies, developed through extensive fieldwork and long-term engagement. The movements advocate, in different ways, for marginalised communities, defending their basic rights to education, health, housing, life, dignity and equal treatment before the law, often fighting against state repression and violence. Learning from this inspiring frontline, these grassroots movements lie at the heart of the struggle for global social justice.
The central claims of the book are that social movements have the potential, if we listen hard enough, to point the way forward to new modes of analysis, new ways of acting and resisting and new strategic directions to aim for and aspire to. Secondly, we make the case for the need to fundamentally rethink our understanding of what constitutes education and learning and expand our horizons beyond formal and non-formal education to a more holistic and relational understanding of the multiple learning spaces that social movements offer. Thirdly, to those social movements, we also make the case that the ‘laboratories’ effectiveness can be enhanced by strategic effort to engage with education processes, target diverse audiences, capture learning and knowledge, and process innovations. Fourthly, we make the case for the centrality of education in the production of post-national subjectivities. Each movement has worked, in different ways, to forge inter-sectional, inter-cultural solidarities, and build new radical identities capable of building alternative solutions to their situated contexts and struggles. Fifthly, we argue that bringing diversity into social movements is not just an ethical issue, but one with the potential for refreshing foundational thinking, and contributing to the renewal of social theory and radical southern-based epistemologies. Sixthly, we argue that there is no magic bullet for social change, but that we can learn a great deal from the contextually rooted praxis of social movements working things out on the ground, learning from and building on the shoulders of the movements and activists that have gone before them. Seventhly, we make the case that the social movements with the richest and most innovative learning and knowledge-making processes are located in the Global South, on the frontlines of some of the most extreme global struggles. Emerging out of these struggles are insights and lessons for social movements all around the world. Insights and lessons that can make important contributions to the vital work of activists and movements engaged in the struggle for global social justice.

Sub Unit

• Pre-Conference Workshops, Book launches, and Visual Art Exhibits / Book Launch

Chair

• Salim Vally, University of Johannesburg

Book Launch Presenters

• Mario Novelli, University of Sussex

• Tejendra Pherali, UCL Institute of Education

• Birgul Kutan, University of Sussex

Discussant

• Rebecca Tarlau, Stanford University