Toward a General Theory and Global History of Workers' Education (original) (raw)
Related papers
Labor Studies Journal, 2011
This article examines the conflicting visions within the US labor movement about the proper function and implementation of labor education programs, and how educational programs are connected to union structure. While this article is primarily based on interviews with union officials, the article also draws on union documents and participant observation in union meetings and educational workshops. The author argues that an analysis of worker education programs is an appropriate entry point for drawing out the similarities and differences that exist about the goals, structure, and political values of different unions in the contemporary US labor movement.
Marxism of, by, and for the People: Karl Korsch and the Problem of Worker Education
Modern Intellectual History
This article argues for the importance of worker education for understanding the intellectual history of Marxism. It examines the work of the early Western Marxist Karl Korsch, who was deeply engaged in that project, showing that his most famous text, 1923's Marxism and Philosophy, can be read as a reflection on its problems and goals, especially the demand that the theory taught to the workers should “express” their life experience and struggle. The article ends with a discussion of the way in which the project of worker education can help us think through the geographical specificities of Marxism. In adjusting the pedagogical project to “express” new populations, especially in countries without a large industrial working class, intellectuals and party leaders entertained broad revisions to Marxist theory.
Dangerous Knowledge: Canadian Workers' Education in the Decades of Discord
Studies in the Education of Adults, 1991
Labour history is a thriving academic enterprise in Canada; the study of workers' education is not. Nonetheless, adult educational historians are turning some attention to recovering the educational d.imensions of workers' culture and politics, 1 and several prominent labour historians 2 have, in focusing on workers' attempts to create an oppositional culture, opened up important questions. How do workers in particular times and places come to understand themselves, their work, their social institutions, competing ideologies? How do they acquire a set of competencies? How do they not only adapt to, but act transformingly in, societies presenting formidable barriers to autonomous workers' education? When we examine processes of industrial conflict and change through the learning lens, we can see that the battles are always intellectual and practical. Particular forms of social and political action proceed from an idea that alternatives to capitalism are necessary and possible. Before persons can change their behaviour and their society, they must first be enlightened as to that possibility. Collective enlightenment (the transformation of collective self-understanding and identity) is the learning catalyst; empowering actors to engage in, within limits, transformative action in the world. The struggles of workers in the turbulent decades under scrutiny can be viewed as a contest between supporters of conflicting visions of what constitutes valid enlightenment, empowerment, and 'transformative action. Thus, given the importance of ideas in generating action, and the importance of education in the creation and promotion of these ideas, education must always be considered in attempts to understand the larger processes of social conflict and change. 3 To understand and perhaps explain the wonderful complexities of workers' education, we need to situate
Workers' Education and Political Consciousness: A Case Study from South Africa
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2007
This article poses the question, who or what ‘teaches' workers political consciousness? It argues that this question cannot be answered in the abstract, but must be located in historical context. Drawing on a case study of a South African local government trade union, it argues that radical education traditions within the labour movement remain, although the trade union movement has lost much of the militancy that characterised its early years, and its education work has been weakened and compromised. The case study union's education programmes are ideologically directive and transformative in intent. Radical learning does not only take place in these organised spaces, however; members' participation in ongoing union activities develops their political understanding and working class identity, while moments of mass action ‘teach’ workers not only about tactics, but also about political and economic power.
Tempo Social, 2021
The broad diversity of issues associated to the "world of work" affect not only the industrial relations domain as such but also a set of political and social groups in society. There is a long tradition in sociology of work that links capital and class to wider themes such as industrialization, development, capitalism and populism. Needless to say, wage labor has become dominant since the eighteenth century, and with it the growth of the labor force as a "commodity". At the same time, it was against this logic that the workers' movement and its unions emerged, conquering broader labor and social rights, in a long conflict process that in Europe culminated in the triumph of the welfare state. Most of the analyses inspired by Karl Marx's thought-who experienced the Industrial Revolution and other popular rebellions in Europe closely-became fundamental for a sociological understanding of these processes, from the first revolts of the English workers to the Paris Commune, through the Revolution of 1848. The rapid social transformation unleashed since then has highlighted the conflictual relationship between the main social classes of modernity. The wild capitalism of the first phase of industrialization favored the profitability of technical innovation, but at the same time it stimulated the collective action of the working classes, paving the way for broader civilizational conquests.
Workers’ Knowledge: Untapped Resource in the Labour Movement
Unions in the 21st Century, 2004
A study analyzed the schooling, further adult course participation, and informal learning of organized and unorganized workers in different occupational classes across Canada. Data were obtained from the first Canadian national survey of 1,562 adults' informal learning practices, conducted in 1998, and field notes and interview transcripts drawn from participants in the auto plant case study of the Working Class Learning Strategies project conducted at five union locals in southern Ontario in 1995-2000. The study found that unionized and non-unionized industrial and service workers in Canada are increasingly highly educated, increasingly participating in adult education courses and devoting substantial amounts of their time to informal learning activities outside organized education and training programs. In addition, the study found that working people are generally engaged collectively and individually in an extensive array of employment-related and other informal learning activities that are neither fully recognized by most employers or union leaders nor given prior learning credit by educational institutions. The study concluded that underestimation of the current range and depth of workers' knowledge and skills by union leaders represents a significant barrier to further growth of the labor movement. Recommendations for strategies to facilitate union growth are suggested, based on what has worked most effectively in these locals of differing general organizational strength and demographic profiles. (KC) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the ori inal document.
Workers’ education under conditions of precariousness: Re-imagining workers’ education
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2019
The increase in precarious forms of work has been extensively investigated by scholars. However, the implications of precarity for workers’ education have not been adequately explored. There is a great need for an approach to workers’ education that will advance the social and economic interests of precarious workers and other marginalised communities who are becoming a major segment of the workforce. Based on in-depth interviews, this article identifies education regarding wages, women and work, working conditions, labour laws and practical skills like public speaking, reading and writing as core elements of a curriculum for the education of precarious workers. Given that precarious workers tend not to be organised in formal structures, non-governmental organisations and trade unions will have to reach out to them to make sure that they provide alternative structures able to craft educational programmes that can build the confidence of precarious workers so that they can challenge their precariousness.
Ricerche di Pedagogia e Didattica. Journal of Theories and Research in Education, 2018
We present a study that pertains to the discussion about educational dimensions in the field of different economies (Solidarity Economy Networks, Solidarity Purchasing Groups, Degrowth movement, etc.). These organisations have developed their own practices and values that have given rise to new ways of living and new models of work. In terms of adult education, we ask under which conditions these informal contexts can be environments for self-education in citizenship and political engagement. They are witnessing the creation of practices that demonstrate an enthusiasm for learning, participation, justice and responsibility, all against the backdrop of a rejection of the prevailing neo-liberal model. This study employed a qualitative methodology based on Case Studies and Grounded Theory. The results reveal that (transition) workers in different economies are experiencing new types of education and work in which the group involved, and the processes of self-education in play, all have...
Introduction to the book Workers Unite The International 150 Years Later
2014
Thanks to the International, the workers ’ movement was able to gain a clearer understanding of the mechanisms of the capitalist mode of production, to become more aware of its own strength, and to develop new and more advanced forms of struggle. Th e organization resonated far beyond the frontiers of Europe, generating hope that a diff erent world was possible among the artisans of Buenos Aires, the early workers ’ associations in Calcutta, and even the labour groups in Australia and New Zealand that applied to join it. Conversely, news of its founding inspired horror in the ruling classes. Th e idea that the workers too wanted to play an active role in history sent shivers down their spine, and many a government set its sights on eradicating the International and harried it with all the means at its disposal.