Translocal Social Movement Learning in the Face of COVID-19: Building Online Solidarity During Lockdowns

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/8883

Keywords:

social movement learning, translocal assemblages, Ghana, Canada, South Africa, COVID-19, lockdowns

Abstract

Social movements are at the forefront of fighting for another world as conceptualised through Arundhati Roy’s portal. COVID-19 and state measures imposed to contend with it have severely impacted not only the activism of movements, but also their capacity to learn. Translocal social movement learning offers one way in which such learning can continue. This article shares reflections from participants involved in a translocal learning engagement between movement members and activist-scholars from Ghana, South Africa and Canada. It provides an important example of the kind of non-hierarchal social movement learning that can happen at a distance, when movements share, learn and support one another.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

Jonathan Langdon, St. Francis Xavier University

Associate Professor
Canada Research Chair, Sustainability and Social Change Leadership
Development Studies/Adult Education

References

Abers, R. N., and M. von Bülow. 2021. “Solidarity During the Pandemic in Brazil: Creative Recombinations in Social Movement Frames and Repertoires”. In COVID-19’s Political Challenges in Latin America, edited by M. Fernandez and C. Machado, 87–101. Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77602-2_7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77602-2_7

ASAF (Ada Singer Advocacy Forum). 2016. The Struggle of the Songor Salt People. Sogakope: Comboni Press.

Bonono, M. 2022. “Fighting State Repression and Inequity for South African Shackdwellers During COVID-19”. Paper presented at the Canadian Association for the Study of International Development Virtual Conference, May 19, 2022.

Bronfman, P. 2021. “Activism in a Time of Pandemic: The Impact of COVID-19 in Chilean Citizen Movement After the Uprising of October 2019”. Citizenship Teaching and Learning 16 (2): 201–11. https://doi.org/10.1386/ctl_00056_1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/ctl_00056_1

Cecco, L. 2020. “Canada Indigenous Group Demands Extinction Rebellion Apology for Trespassing”. The Guardian, March 5, 2020. Accessed August 2, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/05/canada-indigenous-group-demands-extinction-rebellion-apologize-trespassing.

Choudry, A. 2007. “Transnational Activist Coalition Politics and the De/Colonization of Pedagogies of Mobilization: Learning from Anti-Neoliberal Indigenous Movement Articulations”. International Education 37 (1): 97–112. https://trace.tennessee.edu/internationaleducation/vol37/iss1/6.

English, L. M., and P. Mayo. 2012. “Adult Education and Social Movements”. In Learning with Adults: A Critical Pedagogical Introduction, 109–30, vol. 8 of International Issues in Adult Education, edited by P. Mayo. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-768-4_11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6091-768-4_11

Feola, G. 2016. “Translocal Grassroots Movements and the Geography of Sustainability Transitions: The Case of the Transition Towns Network”. Paper presented at the 7th International Sustainability Transitions (IST) Conference: Exploring Transition Research as Transformative Science, September 6–9, 2016, Wuppertal, Germany. Accessed August 1, 2022. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/307924820_Translocal_grassroots_movements_and_the_geography_of_sustainability_transitions_the_case_of_the_Transition_Towns_Network/citations.

Ferguson, J. 2006. Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822387640. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv11g97mg

Ferguson, J., and A. Gupta. 2002. “Spatializing States: Toward an Ethnography of Neoliberal Governmentality”. American Ethnologist: Journal of the American Ethnological Society 29 (4): 981–1002. https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2002.29.4.981. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/ae.2002.29.4.981

Foley, G. 1999. Learning in Social Action: A Contribution to Understanding Informal Education. London: Zed Books.

Frei-Herrmann, K. D. 2022. “The Impact of Social Movements on Austerity Measures: An Analysis of Argentina’s Piquetero Movement and Greece’s Anti-Austerity Movement”. Senior thesis, Claremont McKenna College. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/3055.

Gopal, P. 2019. Insurgent Empire: Anti-Colonial Resistance and British Dissent. London: Verso.

Hader, C. 2021. “#BreakIsolation: Translocal Solidarities and the Necessity of Rural-Urban Alliances in Challenging the Politics of Immobility”. St Antony’s International Review 16 (2): 69–87.

Harris, R., M. Bernard, M. Mullinax, D. Worthen, S. Finch, and V. Womack. 2012. “Attending to Place, Race, and Community: Trans-Local Partnering between Scholars and Activists in Central Appalachia and the Black Belt South”. Journal of Appalachian Studies 18 (1/2): 206–19. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23337715.

Jocson, K. M., and A. Carpenter. 2019. “Translocal Assemblage and the Practice of Alternative Media toward Racial Justice: A Pedagogical Perspective”. Critical Studies in Education 60 (2): 245–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1234493. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17508487.2016.1234493

Kapoor, D. 2011. “Subaltern Social Movement (SSM) Post-Mortems of Development in India: Locating Trans-Local Activism and Radicalism”. Journal of Asian and African Studies 46 (2): 130–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909610395889. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909610395889

Kaur, M., S. Stayt, J. Wildman, S. Tomlin, C. Sharma, A. Adeleke, F. Elguenuni, B. Golding, P. Fudlalla, N. Thalassis, K. Ollivierre, and S. B. Omar. 2021. “Conversations for Change During COVID-19: Community Voices North West London”. In COVID-19 and Co-production in Health and Social Care Research, Policy, and Practice: Volume 2: Co-production Methods and Working Together at a Distance, edited by O. Williams, D. Tembo, J. Ocloo, M. Kaur, G. Hickey, M. Farr and P. Beresford, 19–26. Bristol: Bristol University Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1p6hqk9.6.

Kowalewski, M. 2021. “Street Protests in Times of COVID-19: Adjusting Tactics and Marching ‘as Usual’”. Social Movement Studies 20 (6): 758–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1843014. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1843014

Langdon, J. 2010. “Strategies of Social Movements in Ghana: Questioning the Dividends of Democracy and/or Being Embedded in New Topographies of Power?” Canadian Journal of Development Studies 29 (3–4): 373–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2010.9669264. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02255189.2010.9669264

Langdon, J. 2020. African Social Movement Learning: The Case of the Ada Songor Salt Movement. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004422087. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004422087

Langdon, J., S. Cameron, N. Krieger, and A. Shani. 2021. “Moving with the Movements: Participatory Action Research In/Action”. Canadian Journal of Action Research 22 (1): 87–104. https://doi.org/10.33524/cjar.v22i1.538. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33524/cjar.v22i1.538

Langdon, J., and K. Larweh. 2014. “Seeing the Synergy in the Signals: Reflections on Weaving Projects into Social Movement Mobilizing through Community Radio”. In Community-Based Multiliteracies and Digital Media Projects: Questioning Assumptions and Exploring Realities, edited by H. M. Pleasants and D. E. Salter, 217–36. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Maton, R. M. 2022. “Fighting on the Frontlines: Intersectional Organizing in Educators’ Social Justice Unions During COVID-19”. Gender, Work and Organization 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12827. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12827

McFarlane, C. 2009. “Translocal Assemblages: Space, Power and Social Movements”. Geoforum 40 (4): 561–67. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2009.05.003

McGregor, C., and J. Crowther. 2018. “The Transition Movement as Politics and Pedagogy in Communities”. Community Development Journal 53 (1): 8–24.

McKeon, N. 2017. “Transforming Global Governance in the Post-2015 Era: Towards an Equitable and Sustainable World”. Globalizations 14 (4): 487–503. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.1244757. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2016.1244757

Moragues-Faus, A., and R. Sonnino. 2019. “Re-assembling Sustainable Food Cities: An Exploration of Translocal Governance and Its Multiple Agencies”. Urban Studies 56 (4): 778–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018763038. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098018763038

Niesz, T. 2021. “Activist Educators and the Production, Circulation, and Impact of Social Movement Knowledge”. Critical Education 12 (7): 5–22. https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v12i7.186577.

Pleyers, G. 2020. “The Pandemic Is a Battlefield: Social Movements in the COVID-19 Lockdown”. Journal of Civil Society 16 (4): 295–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2020.1794398. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17448689.2020.1794398

Pressman, J., and A. Choi-Fitzpatrick. 2020. “Covid19 and Protest Repertoires in the United States: An Initial Description of Limited Change”. Social Movement Studies 20 (6): 1–14. https://doi.org/10.33774/apsa-2020-12n7h. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2020.1860743

Roy, A. 2020. “The Pandemic Is a Portal”. Financial Times, April 3, 2020. Accessed November 10, 2020. https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca.

Starr FM Online. 2019. “Shaanxi Mining Accident: Second Miner Dies”. Starr FM, December 24, 2019. Accessed August 1, 2022. https://starrfm.com.gh/2019/12/shaanxi-mining-accident-second-miner-dies/.

Venturini, F. 2020. “Social Movements’ Powerlessness at the Time of Covid-19: A Personal Account”. Interface: A Journal for and about Social Movements 12 (1): 1–4. Accessed August 1, 2022. https://www.interfacejournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Venturini.pdf.

Walters, S. 2022. “Learning about Climate Justice in Times of Drought and Covid-19”. In “Forty Years of the International Journal of Lifelong Education: Reflections on a Changing Field”, edited by J. Holford, S. Hodge, M. Milana, R. Waller and S. Webb, special issue, International Journal of Lifelong Education 41 (1): 45–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2021.1982038. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370.2022.2040964

Wang, D. J., and S. A. Soule. 2012. “Social Movement Organizational Collaboration: Networks of Learning and the Diffusion of Protest Tactics, 1960–1995”. American Journal of Sociology 117 (6): 1674–722. https://doi.org/10.1086/664685. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1086/664685

Downloads

Published

2022-08-22

How to Cite

Langdon, Jonathan. 2022. “Translocal Social Movement Learning in the Face of COVID-19: Building Online Solidarity During Lockdowns”. Education As Change 26 (August):14 pages. https://doi.org/10.25159/1947-9417/8883.

Issue

Section

Themed Section 1
Received 2020-12-18
Accepted 2022-07-06
Published 2022-08-22