Learning, Experience and the Societal Unconscious: Combining a Materialistic Theory and a Dialectic Methodology

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Abstract

This chapter reserves the term Transformation for substantial societal changes that involve subjective engagement and social learning. It presents a psycho-societal approach that theorizes individual and collective learning as a potential dimension of societal life. It is a materialist approach based in critical social theory and psychodynamics, which sees learning and other subjective processes as embodied in the social practice of concrete living people. Epistemologically it is committed to a dialectical methodology for empirical studies of learning in everyday life, inside and outside educational settings, recognizing historical reality, and tracing endogenous social and psychic dynamics that may emerge through individual and collective learning. Examples are studies of work life learning and potential transformations of the societal ecology of work life, with an outlook to wider society.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Palgrave Handbook of Learning for Transformation
EditorsA. Nicolaidis, S. Eschenbacher, P. Buergelt, Y. Gilpin-Jackson, M. Welch, M. Misawa
Number of pages17
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Publication date2 Dec 2021
Pages751-767
Chapter42
ISBN (Print)978-3-030-84693-0
ISBN (Electronic)978-3-030-84694-7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2 Dec 2021

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