This is a website presenting work of the ‘Learning in Productive Social Movements‘ Project headed by Professor Yrjö Engeström, the Director of the Center for Research on Activity, Development and Learning CRADLE. The project is part of the Adacemy of Finland Research Programme: Future of Learning, Knowledge and Skills TULOS 2014–2017.

THE RESEARCH GROUP:

Yrjö Engeström / Leading Professor / University of Helsinki
John Krinsky / Associate Professor, Senior Expert / City College of New York
Colin Barker / Retired Lecturer, Senior Expert / Manchester Metropolitan University
Juhana Rantavuori / Postdoctoral Researcher / University of Helsinki
Hillary Caldwell / Doctoral Student / City University of New York
Kukka Ranta / Doctoral Student / University of HelsinkI
Mikael Brunila / Master Student / University of Helsinki

This project will analyze the nature and potentials of learning within productive social movements. Social movements are powerful arenas for learning how to initiate societal change and gain transformative agency. The motivational and interactional intensity of social movements is often seen as a desirable model for human learning in general. However, relatively little rigorous research has been conducted on the actual mechanisms and processes of learning within social movements.

Most published analyses of social movements are oriented at understanding political struggles, issues of power, and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion within and around these movements. In the present project, the analysis of data will be focused on the potentials of and obstacles to expansive learning in social movements.