Learning in productive social movements - Oppiminen tuottavissa yhteiskunnallisissa liikkeissä

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Garry Stone
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1 Learning in productive social movements - Oppiminen tuottavissa yhteiskunnallisissa liikkeissä TULOS-seminaari, Suomen Akatemia, Yrjö Engeström ja Juhana Rantavuori Center for Research on Activity, Development, and Learning CRADLE Helsingin yliopisto

2 Introduction Scholarly work in education should be more relevant and engaged in supporting transformative agency emerging in struggles for fundamental human rights Two promising tendencies related to exploring and supporting the formation of agency may be observed in educational research: Firstly, to move from studies of schools only to examining learning in broader communities, workplaces and social movements. Secondly, to move from studies based on observations only to interventions, participatory design and participatory analyses.

3 Aims of the study In this paper we examine the dynamics that trigger, sustain or prevent the formation of transformative agency in efforts to generate alternatives to capitalism Specifically, we ask how a theoretical model of Vygotsky s (1997) principle of double stimulation may help us to identify key mechanisms in the emergence of transformative agency in in a social movement and in a grassroots cooperative.

4 Positive and negative dialectics The core of our proposal is dialectics undertood as both critical, negative dialectics (rigorous analyses of the limits of existing conceptualizations and dominant practices) and productive, positive dialectics (development of alternative arguments, as well as designs and implementations of alternative modes of production). The potential relevance of educational scholarship in our society plays out at the intersection of these two dialectics, requiring the development of theoretical tools while engaging in concrete local transformations.

5 Alternatives to capitalism At a broad societal level, alternatives to capitalism within capitalism can be seen as instances of transformative agency. Without mobilizing dialectical thinking, these alternatives can hardly be detected as alternatives. Due to the pervasive lack of dialectical culture, education is far from having recognized the relevance of these alternatives for the development of its own field. Yet, all these alternatives involve strong, more or less explicitly defined, informal or formal educational programs. Do educational practice and educational research have a role to play in the positive dialectics of these struggling communities?

6 Transformative agency Understanding transformative agency in capitalism through the dialectical category of alienation can be fruitful for supporting organization which functions as alternatives to capitalism The common understanding of agency solely as an inherent emancipatory potential within individuals means to cut agency off from the productive processes and societal relations through which it emerges and develops. At a broad societal level, alternatives to capitalism within capitalism can be seen as instances of transformative agency

7 La PAH movement The Spanish La Plataforma por los Afectados de la Hipoteca (La PAH) movement was founded in 2009 in Barcelona to fight mortgage related evictions. La PAH has stopped over 2000 evictions in Spain since 2010 through civil disobedience and direct actions. The movement supports individual mortgage holders with the aim of keeping them in their homes and nullifying their debt or giving them a just social rent for the homes they formerly owned.

8 Case Wilson In this paper, we will briefly present and analyze the case of one person, Wilson. He immigrated from Ecuador to Spain in 2002, works in construction and has two children in Ecuador. Next excerpts are taken from an interview in which Wilson recounts and reflects on his own process.

9 Paralysis This process of gaining transformative agency began with an unbearable personal situation of not being able to pay the required installments of the mortgage of one s home. in May 2012 we decided to stop paying. And we -- [...] you don t want to starve because of missing a mortgage installment to the bank, and so it went, we continued not paying, we didn t know what to do, we weren t -- we knew no one from la PAH, nothing, nothing. This situation led to a paralysis, of seeing no way out. Recently when I didn t know what to do, when I didn t have a way out I felt desperate. I didn t know what to do or how to confront, and of course it makes you feel low and worthless, you just want to disappear.

10 Breaking out of the paralysis For Wilson, breaking out of the paralysis began with attending a Monday Assembly of La PAH. This relational space became the breeding ground for Wilson s transformative agency By participating in the meetings every day, you will learn more step by step. They try to get rid of laws that we can defend... if you are constantly in meetings and empower yourself in every way, the knowledge that you acquire every day Many people who come become disillusioned because they think it is a lie that PAH could help them. But by staying and empowering yourself every day you will learn how to guide another comrade, address a banker, social services, in PAH you learn all that how to express yourself!

Actions against banks A key method in actions against banks is papering, covering the windows of a bank office with sheets of paper that contain

11 Actions against banks A key method in actions against banks is papering, covering the windows of a bank office with sheets of paper that contain demands and ideas promoted by La PAH. In these actions, Wilson took the important role of spreading the glue on the windows with the help of a paint roller

12 Paint roller as a crucial second stimulus At the very beginning of his involvement in La PAH, Wilson adopted the paint roller as a crucial second stimulus that helped Wilson embrace the novel possibilities opened up by La PAH. By becoming the key operator of the paint roller, Wilson learned to perform transformative actions that literally changed the settings, physically, semiotically and politically.

13 The Herttoniemi Food Cooperative Founded in 2011, the Herttoniemi Food Cooperative brings together consumers seeking reliable supplies of organic and nearby food, and agricultural producers of such supplies. The cooperative has about 200 members who pay an annual harvest fee of 450 Euro. It rents a field 30 kilometers from the center of Helsinki where a hired farmer produces vegetables for the cooperative. During the harvest season, vegetables are transported weekly from the field into the city to distribution points where members can come to pick up their share.

14 Case 2: Board of Herttoniemi Food Cooperative In spite of its growing popularity, the continuity of the Herttoniemi Food Cooperative is constantly at risk. Small-scale ecological farming is very labor-intensive and has to compete with the heavily subsidized farm products of large food store chains. A member of our research team, Juhana Rantavuori, between May 12, 2015 and May, In practically all the board meetings of the Food Cooperative observed and recorded (between May 12, 2015 and May, 2016) the persistent challenge of economic sustainability of the cooperative was discussed.

15 Board meeting, May 12, 2015 These excerpts demonstrate a persistent tension between insufficient income from membership fees and optimistically budgeted scale of production 01 BOARD MEMBER 1: Since the last meeting, we have got three members, but members are resigning all the time, and we are not getting new members. There are still 20 of whom we do not know 14 BOARD MEMBER 2: 160 members? [at least 200 members are needed to meet financial goals] That means our situation is a bit bad. 15 BOARD MEMBER 1: It is a bad situation economically. We should do something about it. In any case, we will probably not get those members, because we are in this phase [of the year]. We should start it

Planning day, November 14, 2015 In a planning day, we researchers offered the participants two types of artifacts: an interactive electronic timeline

16 Planning day, November 14, 2015 In a planning day, we researchers offered the participants two types of artifacts: an interactive electronic timeline and an interactive electronic map (in picture) Participants almost immediately saw the potential of the tools in attracting new members to the Cooperative

17 Potentials of the interactive map Later in the planning day, the participants discussed the potentials of the interactive map, identifying locations in which the cooperative could become active and recruit new members. 147 BOARD MEMBER 1: But this confirms that marketing will function well if it begins with the members. Because they are located in different parts of the area. If they get their feet on the ground in their own parts 148 BOARD MEMBER 2: Yes, okay! 149 BOARD MEMBER 6: Oh yes, so that out of each small circle on the map a bigger cluster would emerge. 150 BOARD MEMBER 7: A pyramid scheme!

18 Break out of the paralysis We offered the participants tools that could become second stimuli and help them break out of the paralysis. Such a breaking out seems indeed to have taken place, not as a radical once-and-for-all turning point but more like a lengthy series of expansive reenvisionings of the situation. It is not yet clear whether and to what extent we can connect these steps to the artifacts we introduced. It is entirely possible and perhaps very likely that the participants have actually found and constructed their own second stimuli along the way.

19 Discussion The two cases allow us to compare and contrast processes of formation of transformative agency in an individual (Wilson) and in a collective (the board of the Herttoniemi Cooperative). At the same time, the two cases offer an intriguing possibility to follow movement between predominantly negative and predominantly positive dialectics

20 Dynamics of emergence of transformative agency in the two cases POSITIVE DIALECTIC INDIVIDUAL AGENCY 2 nd STIMULUS: PAINT ROLLER RELATIONAL SPACE: MONDAY ASSEMBLY, STREET ACTIONS Wilson; La PAH RENTER POSITION; BLACKSTONE NEW MODEL FOR THE ACTIVITY Board of Herttoniemi Food Cooperative RELATIONAL SPACE: BOARD MEETING 2 ND STIMULI: TIMELINE AND MAP COLLECTIVE AGENCY NEGATIVE DIALECTIC

21 Conflict of motives In both cases, the starting point was a conflict of motives. For Wilson, the conflict emerged between stopping mortgage payments because one could not afford them on the one hand and expecting to be evicted on the other hand in effect between starving and losing one s home For the Herttoniemi board, the conflict was between insufficient income from membership fees and optimistically budgeted scale of production. ne s home.

22 Differences between the relational spaces in the two cases In La PAH, the assemblies are explicitly oriented to supporting newcomers, individuals and families who are at low points of self-confidence and agency. The assemblies and actions serve as if initiations to personal transformative agency, with the pervasive presence of more experienced and more competent supportive peers and colleagues. In the Herttoniemi case, the board meetings were quite flat and horizontal in that there were only minor differences between the competences of the different members. It is an intriguing topic for further analysis to examine the possible implications of this difference for the initiation and completion of double stimulation.

23 References Sannino & Engeström (unpublished manuscript) Generation of transformative agency as a learning process in social movements and grassroot cooperatives. Vygotsky, L.S. (1997). The history of development of higher mental functions. Chapter 12: Self-control. In The collected works of L. S. Vygotsky. Vol. 4. The history of the development of higher mental functions. (pp ). New York: Plenum.

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