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There is emerging evidence of a contemporary growth of adult learning within civil society, 'that public space which is independent of the state' (Krygier 1996:14). This learning involves a spectrum of groups, ranging through adult education classes, autonomous study circles, voluntary organisations, community groups and a variety of social movements. This new emphasis on learning within civil society appears to arise out of two parallel trends within society today. On the one hand, there is a proliferation and diversity of forms and sites of learning developing out of a new focus on Lifelong Learning and a flexible learning as a way of coming to terms with the growing complexities and uncertainties of the post-modern or late modern era. On the other, it reflects a renewed interest in learning in civil society on the part of educators, as they try to gain some autonomous space away from the prescriptions and restrictions of the directive funding mechanisms and bureaucratization of formal education institutions and challenge the dominant discourse of Lifelong Learning firmly rooted in human capital ideology and focused on the 'economic individual'.
Adult educators across the globe, especially those with a commitment to a social purpose, have a particular interest in developments within civil society. Indeed, social purpose adult education has a long and distinguished history of involvement in civil society from the work of the National Council of Labour Colleges and the Workers' Education Association in the UK, to that of the Highlander Centre and the Antigonish Movement in North America, to Paulo Freire and his disciples in South America and Africa, to the Study Circles of Sweden and Denmark.
However, the world is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable, as demonstrated for example in a rapidly-changing and fragmenting global labour market, the pervasiveness of marketisation and consumerism, the new questions being raised about the role and funding of the welfare state, the exponential growth of the information society, a wider acknowledgement and assertion of cultural diversity and pluralism and a growing recognition of a global learning divide between 'haves' and 'have nots'. All these developments compound into a growing acknowledgement of the existence of a 'Risk Society', typified by risk and uncertainty where ' new areas of unpredictability are created quite often by the very attempts to control them.' (Beck, Giddens and Lash 1994:vii)
While the Risk Society has clear implications for the role of the state, it also impacts on civil society and within it the whole idea of social purpose adult education. This does not mean that the values of social purpose education, like social justice, greater social and economic equality, the promotion of a critical democracy, are no longer valid, but it perhaps calls into question some of the modernist certainties of social purpose educators as well as exactly how they develop their praxis. In this vein and in this context, Usher, Bryant and Johnston (1997:24) identify a lessening of the power of the educator to define what constitutes worthwhile knowledge and serious learning and Michael Welton suggests that as educators we need to move towards a more chastened and modest utopianism (Welton 1997a:28)] The Risk Society raises questions about exactly how educators can best sustain a social purpose and how they can usefully engage with and influence a lot of the learning already taking place within civil society, much of which exists independently of any professionally recognised educator.
This paper will try to explore the contemporary resurgence of interest in the sphere of civil society, then trace the growth of adult learning within it and the range of groups and organisations involved. It will then review critically the possible roles for research and teaching in relation to the different groups involved in adult learning within civil society with a view to bridging the gap between radical rhetoric and often essentially conservative practice.
Civil Society
Along with a renewed interest in civil society comes a need to review exactly what the term means and why it is attractive to different interest groups. Gramsci re-formulated Hegel's original more economistic concept of 'civil society' to identify it as an essentially political, oppositional sphere of operations to what he termed as 'political society' or the state. This was an opposition earlier identified by independent working class groups in the UK and later highlighted in the 'civil society against the state' movement in Eastern Europe. Gramsci saw civil society as comprising '...all of the "so-called private" organisations such as churches, trade unions, political parties and cultural associations which are distinct from the processes of production and from the public apparatuses of the state'. (Simon 1985:69) Just as importantly, he identified it as ethical or moral society within which the dominant hegemony can be challenged: 'it is precisely in civil society in which intellectuals operate especially' (Gramsci 1986: 56)
With this in mind, it is easy to see how there can be different meanings of and emphases in civil society between Right and Left, between the former East and former West. For example, those towards the Right are interested in civil society as it reflects a primarily apolitical arena to develop civic virtues like self-sacrifice, duty and service for others, an arena separate from but still understood to be within the overall framework of a free market society (Green 1993:ix). In contrast, the Left, drawing more directly from Gramsci identifies civil society as a sector of public life outside of the directly regulated political and economic spheres where there is sufficient relative autonomy and subversive space to develop counter-hegemonic action. Equally, in post-communist East Central Europe, there is an emphasis on civil society providing a venue for re-discovering individual civil rights and space for the development of an entrepreneurial spirit and culture after the passive dependency engendered by communist state centralism, while in parts of Western Europe and the USA, there is a concern with community and public space as a way of counter-acting an excessively individualistic ideology and an emphasis on the role and potential of quasi-political social movements in helping to change society (Gustavsson et al 1997:522). In engaging with the wide spectrum of adult learning in civil society, in developing a more 'chastened and modest utopianism', in avoiding simply 'preaching to the converted', adult educators will perhaps need at some time to engage with all these different understandings in reviewing their social purpose praxis.
As a first step, it may be useful to identify and briefly explore the range of adult learning which exists in civil society today as evidenced through contemporary literature and empirical research. A broad continuum of adult learning can perhaps be traced ranging from predominantly individualised learning initiatives, for example, the development of hobbies and private interests, through more collective learning, for example, in voluntary and community organisations, to more overtly political learning activities, for example, in and through social movements.
While acknowledging the extent of the learning which takes place on an individual basis within civil society and recognising that adult educators may have a supportive role to play with such individuals within an Learning Society (Johnston and Percy 1997), this paper, because it is concerned with the social purpose dimension of learning, will concentrate on learning amongst groups within civil society. Moving along the continuum, empirical evidence exists regarding learning and action within voluntary organisations. For example, Elsdon has demonstrated the extent of the voluntary sector in the UK and the prevalence of learning that takes place in voluntary organisations. Significantly, his research identifies that over 50% of his respondents report that they have become more politically conscious as a result of their involvement in voluntary organisations and that 25% of have become more politically active as a result of this participation and learning (Elsdon 1997: 23). On a broader international scale, these UK findings are consistent with the experience of Study Circles in Sweden (Larsson 1997), and more recently Australia (AAACE, Morgan) as well as the Equipped for the Future initiative in the USA (Merrifield 1997:323-4). Indeed this last study of the civic participation of 1500 adult learners from adult basic education and literacy programmes in 34 States shows that they wanted to learn in order to have better access to information, give voice to their ideas and opinions and be heard, solve problems and make decisions on their own and keep up with a rapidly-changing world.
At the furthest end of this adult learning continuum is the learning that takes place within social movements. 'Old' social movements, for example trade unions and the churches, are seen to be more rooted in tradition, more centrally organised with a defined membership and specific aims and have a long history of engagement with adult educators in both formal and informal learning situations (see Fieldhouse 1996). In contrast, 'new' social movements, for example, environmental groups, consumer groups, groups co-alescing around issues of gender, race, sexuality, disability, age, are seen to be more knowledge-based, issue-orientated, to be acting in the defence of the public realm, concerned with the autonomy of the people (Jarvis 1997: 163) but have few connections with adult educators, as an important part of their raison d'etre is to take responsibility for their own learning activities.
Exploring Roles for Adult Educators
Having briefly reviewed the range of adult learning in groups in civil society, it is instructive to note that they all relate to some kind of social purpose and have a specific interest in active civic participation, yet few are actively involved with adult educators. If adult educators are to engage usefully with adult learners in civil society to the learners' advantage and in the interests of fostering social purpose learning and ideas of active citizenship, then how are we to proceed? Suggested responses vary from the liberal, the technical/functional to the more radical. For example, Oglesby (1997:17-22) advocates helping people to understand the causes of change and education for rights and responsibilities; Elsdon (1997: 24) suggests that voluntary organisations need moral support, information, advice and training, while Benn and Fieldhouse (1997: 63-64) build this into a more comprehensive outline curriculum for citizenship involving a critical leadership training which encompasses all the above dimensions but also involves locating local issues in a wider socio-political context, promoting participant 'voice' and helping participants to deal with difference, diversity and, at times, conflict.
These responses all have considerable merit and are clearly set out with supportive and collaborative intent. However, there are also attendant dangers in all such educator-framed responses in that: they can be based too much on normative ideas of need; they manage in practice only to engage with the most accessible and like-minded learning groups; they can serve to colonise and deradicalise independent social learning, in, for example, reducing social purpose to the techniques of organisational management and social commitment to individual progression within an accredited system; they engage with social movements only in a tokenistic and/or rhetorical way.
For this reason, I intend to explore the role of the educator more widely in relation to the whole range of collective adult learning in civil society already identified and review the potential that exists for adult education intervention in the interests of fostering a social purpose and countering the learning divide. As a framework for this exploration, I intend to put into a contemporary context Lovett's four roles for the educator within community education: network agent, resources agent, educational guide and teacher. (Lovett 1975)
Network Agent
A concept much invoked today in relation to learning in civil society is social capital, defined by Putnam (1995:67) as 'the features of social organisation such as networks, norms and social trust that facilitate co-ordination and co-operation for mutual benefit'. Social capital is immediately attractive to social purpose adult educators today as it represents a clear counter focus to the dominant emphasis on human and physical capital considerations. Indeed, a variety of social purpose educators recommend building social capital as a practical way of strengthening civil society, of encouraging civic participation, countering social exclusion and promoting the public good (Merrifield 1997: 321-323, Welton 1997b). Still, recent educator research relating to social capital in the USA and in the UK is far from clear as to whether a focus on social capital has an overall emancipatory or conservative effect (Zacharakis-Jutz and Flora 1997) or what exactly is the relationship between social capital and adult learning activity (Field and Schuller 1998).
Further research may be necessary to determine the ultimate impact of social capital on adult learning. Nevertheless the whole debate about social capital re-asserts the role of the educator as a network agent within civil society. This can build on Lovett's original idea of working in a community through making informal contacts; understanding and investigating problems, needs and interests; identifying those that were educational; and translating these into forms acceptable to those concerned. Certainly, examples of this type of educator activity exist today, whether in making learning and training connections between relatively small voluntary organisations or in working with community groups as part of a multi-agency team in the context of social and economic regeneration. Indeed, in a recent personal involvement with a red/green social movement in Hamburg, I noted how the networking role of a non-directive community educator was central to helping to make and maintain collaborative links between community groups and other social movements (Johnston 1998) In order to develop a networking role, adult educators perhaps need to be fully aware of its essential non-hierarchical nature. In so doing, they can give credibility to adult learning in civil society without necessarily rushing to enmesh it in a formal accredited structure.
Resources Agent
The role of network agent moves readily into the that of resources agent. Lovett saw this role as trying to recognise, contact and bring into operation the individuals and organisations capable of providing appropriate educational resources to meet the needs of the community. In the contemporary world, two areas of educator intervention immediately seem appropriate as an extension of this. First, within a growing bidding and contract culture, educational institutions and educators themselves have the resources and wherewithal to help facilitate bids for funding, whether through the UK Single Regeneration Budget or wider European and other funding structures. The key problem and task for the social purpose educator is to make this expertise and this infrastructure available to groups within civil society while at the same time helping to limit the imperial gaze and the bureaucratic requirements of the facilitating institution.
Another resource role can be linked to research. One clear way of moving beyond the mere rhetoric of community involvement is to develop collaborative and participatory research with community groups and social movements within civil society. Educators can share institutional research expertise and resources with groups in the community in a way that gives credibility, greater legitimacy and a higher profile to groups of learners without necessarily taking over the research process or over-emphasising its technical/methodological aspects. Instructive examples exist of such research partnerships which have been successful in in-depth engagement with groups in civil society but have also identified problems in making the research process and outcomes fully democratic. (Wildemeersch 1992, Zacharakis-Jutz and Flora 1997). The task for educators here may well be to ensure that collaborative research works to mutual benefit, that there is co-operation without colonisation, exploration without exploitation.
Educational Guide
The role of resources agent links well with that of educational guide. Lovett identified the role of being a guide and adviser, to groups already involved in a learning process, whether geared towards social action or personal growth, and essentially on their terms. In the contemporary context of helping to foster/support a social purpose within civil society, this role can be developed in two main ways. A key area where there is great scope is that of learning-needs analysis. A whole industry of consultants now exist in the area of needs analysis, a term which has acquired great prominence and ascribed technical status within an increasingly consumer-oriented society. Adult educators concerned with a social purpose may well have the reputation and expertise to facilitate this process in a different, more critically reflexive way, on the one hand, avoiding common sense and normative ideas of need and on the other moving beyond an over-reliance on technical/rationality - it is interesting to trace how in the voluntary sector for example the language of management increasingly prevails in the process and outcomes of needs assessment and that of social purpose diminishes. Here the role of the educator may be, not to impose or suggest his/her own ideas of social purpose but to problematise the whole context of needs. S/he can engage with the real anxieties arising from the increasing accountability and technical expertise required within a regulated consumer society while at the same time helping groups explore the dialectical relationship between this and the original aims (and social purposes) of the group.
The adult educator can be an educational guide in another way, in relation to more formally-provided educational offerings. While everyone is aware of the growing complexities of educational systems and the consequent need to provide non-directive advice and guidance in order to help prospective learners find their own route through the complexities of the educational system, there is possibly room for making this more of a two-way process in simultaneously helping to make connections between learners in formal situations and learning and action opportunities in civil society. The high correlation between educational level and active citizenship has been noted by a number of commentators (see Field 1995). This would appear to suggest that a useful and readily achievable role for a social purpose educator would be to facilitate inter-connections between formal education and community and voluntary groups as a way of enriching civil society and helping to create what Welton calls an 'exuberant public sphere' (Welton 1997b).
Teacher
The last role identified by Lovett in 1975 was that of teacher which owed much to Freire's idea of a teacher/learner working with learner/teachers in a community setting. Within contemporary civil society, there would appear to be a continuing role for a suitably humble educational expert. At one level, subject expertise can be harnessed in the interests of learner groups, for example in the growing debate about the environment in connection with Agenda 21 or in a range of health-related issues, both of which impinge on the lives of individuals and groups within civil society. What is important here is that such expert involvement moves beyond a top-down transmission process and incorporates a more reflexive epistemology which also acknowledges the expertise and knowledge that resides with groups in civil society.
This raises another possible teaching role in civil society, in resourcing and illuminating public debates about contemporary issues. I recently came across an instructive example of this in Australia where the Australian Association of Adult and Community Education in collaboration with the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation developed resource materials and Study Circles around the very topical and controversial issue of Aboriginal Reconciliation. What was particularly noteworthy about this initiative was that the very well-researched and high quality materials were very much geared to informing the public in an even-handed way but with a clear view towards the active involvement of the Study Circle participants in civil society. Although individual Study Circles met with varying degrees of success in terms of their development, there is evidence that the initiative as whole impacted to some degree on the consciousness of the nation and that, in at least some cases, it prompted further action by, for example, church groups in the interests of Aboriginal Reconciliation (AAACE 1997, Morgan 1997). With the current growth of distance and open learning, this highlights an area where educators can play a teaching/facilitative role in supporting and resourcing groups within civil society as, for example, in the UK example of the Centre for Citizenship Learning and Action and its aim to "create a dynamic partnership of adult eduction providers, trade unions, community and voluntary organisations collaborating on a programme of democratic reform and renewal" (CCLA 1998). Of course, this teaching in civil society, predominantly on the terms and on the territory of learner groups, can always be complemented at a more modest and institutional level. There are still opportunities to create safe spaces (in classrooms and elsewhere) for learners to practise the civil arts (Merrifield 1997), to look critically and reflexively at their learning and action in civil society and to locate this within a wider critical context.
Conclusion
This paper has attempted to trace the range and extent of adult learning that goes on in civil society and re-view the role of the adult educator in relation to this. It has tried, within the context of a contemporary Risk Society to identify some potential roles for adult educators who want to work with and support such learning without colonising it, who want to maintain some kind of social purpose without prescribing exactly what that is. I have argued that there are still useful and supportive roles for adult educators in relation to learning and action within civil society. However, in order to identify and develop these, adult educators, both researchers and teachers, need to avoid the danger of radical rhetoric allied to essentially conservative institutional practice. While we need to maintain a critical focus on social purpose adult learning in the interests of a fairer and more equitable society, we should also be more modest in our immediate aims, more flexible in our partnerships and more reflexive in our praxis.
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This document was added to the Education-line database 03 July 1998