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Grounded in Lave and Wenger’s situated learning epistemology and Bourdieu’s habitus, it argues activism learning is cognitive, embodied, and situated in practice. Based on Australian empirical research using in-depth interviews, it examines two activist groups: lifelong activists and circumstantial activists, highlighting how immersion, comfort zones, and urgency shape learning trajectories.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/australian-journal-of-adult-learning-volume-51-number-2-july-2011-learning-in-social-action/593477/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/australian-journal-of-adult-learning-volume-51-number-2-july-2011-learning-in-social-action/593477.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Jasmine","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-09","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":39},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What theoretical frameworks does the paper use to analyze activists’ learning?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"It draws on Lave and Wenger’s epistemology of situated learning and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do lifelong activists and circumstantial activists differ in their learning processes?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"Lifelong activists tend to develop skills incrementally through long-term involvement, especially in student politics, while circumstantial activists learn more rapidly due to not having early immersion and often needing to acquire knowledge urgently.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What does the paper mean by defining the scope of activism for this research?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The scope is shaped by broad community development theories, covering practices such as policy development, campaigning, community building, neighbourhood development, popular education, and participation in social movements, while also noting activism spaces not always connected to formal movements.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},593477,1792167605,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":39,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},2336478487870,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Australian Journal of Adult Learning Volume 51, Number 2, July 2011  \nLearning in social action:  \nThe informal and social learning dimensions of circumstantial and lifelong activists  \nTracey Ollis RMIT University  \nThis paper explores the informal and social learning dimensions of activists as they learn skills and knowledge through participating in social action. In doing this I draw on Lave and Wenger’s epistemology of situated learning and Bourdieu’s theory of‘habitus’. I argue activists learn an array of community development skills in the social environment of activism. I claim activists’ learning is cognitive, embodied and situated in practice. This paper is based on empirical research in Australia, where in-depth interviews were conducted with activists to uncover their important pedagogy. It explores the learning dimensions of two groups of activists.‘Lifelong activists’who have generally been involved in student politics and have participated in activism over many years, and ‘circumstantial activists’ who become involved in protest due to a series of life circumstances. This paper claims that while both groups’ learning is social and informal, lifelong activists tend to develop their skills  \nLearning in social action 249  \nincrementally by being involved in the fertile site of student politics. On the other hand, circumstantial activists, not having had the benefit of early immersion in a community of practice, are rapid learners. They are frequently taken out of their comfort zone as activists and need to acquire new knowledge and skills urgently in order to practise effectively. Some circumstantial activists remain on the periphery of activism and never fully immerse themselves in the practices of activism. I argue there is much to be gained from understanding learning in social action, an epistemology of adult learning which deserves greater prominence in current adult education discourse.  \nKey terms: Activism and learning, social learning, informal learning, communities of practice, habitus  \nDefining activism  \nActivism is educationally rich and historically situated in the  \npost-enlightenment tradition of humanism. Community development and activism ‘is a part of the project of modernity,[and] draws attention to the state in its creation of disadvantage’(Kenny  \n2006: 94–95). Kenny (2006: 385) argues that activism is a strand of community development whereby people ‘strive continually to understand where the strategic opportunities for action lie’. Resistance towards state apparatus in Australian society is not new as Australia is a western democracy with a long history of trade unionism (Burgmann 2003) . Social movements and social change in Australia have long been an important part of the political and social landscape (Maddison & Scalmer 2006) . However, even as Australia was being colonised by Britain in the eighteenth century, there was resistance to invasion by Australian Aborigines, the Indigenous Australians (Burgmann 2003) . Since the nineteenth century, activism in Australia has been connected to social movements encompassing  \n250 Tracey Ollis  \nissues such as women’s suffrage, women’s liberation, Indigenous land rights, civil rights and reconciliation. Activism has also been associated with the peace and anti-nuclear movements, the anti-war protests ofVietnam and Iraq, the environmental movement in its various forms, and the anti-corporate globalisation movements. As Couch (2009) argues:  \nFrom the salt mines to Seattle, throughout history, movements such as these have challenged and deposed dictators, stopped armies, undermined corporations, established basic human rights and halted entire industries, all without the use of violence (2009: 4) .  \nFor the purposes of this research, the scope of activism is shaped by the broad theories of community development which take  \ninto account practices such as policy development, community campaigning, community building, neighbourhood development, pop","cbCaivd3dqIIxRCy","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivd3dqIIxRCy","pdf",232348,21,"English","# Learning in social action\n## Informal and social learning dimensions of activists\n## Lifelong vs circumstantial activists\n## Defining activism\n## Scope of activism in community development theories","[{\"question\":\"What theoretical frameworks does the paper use to analyze activists’ learning?\",\"answer\":\"It draws on Lave and Wenger’s epistemology of situated learning and Bourdieu’s theory of habitus.\"},{\"question\":\"How do lifelong activists and circumstantial activists differ in their learning processes?\",\"answer\":\"Lifelong activists tend to develop skills incrementally through long-term involvement, especially in student politics, while circumstantial activists learn more rapidly due to not having early immersion and often needing to acquire knowledge urgently.\"},{\"question\":\"What does the paper mean by defining the scope of activism for this research?\",\"answer\":\"The scope is shaped by broad community development theories, covering practices such as policy development, campaigning, community building, neighbourhood development, popular education, and participation in social movements, while also noting activism spaces not always connected to formal movements.\"}]","Australian Journal of Adult Learning - Volume 51 - Number 2 - July 2011 - Learning in social action | PDF",1792077323,53]