A radical holistic edge-fusion learning space with a collection of really useful collaborative tools for making social-ecological just change.
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Change is not made alone!
Co-Researcher KOB
HEdgeSpace.net is an open access creative Adult and Community Education learning-for-action platform.
The website contains a collection of workshops and other learning resources which can be used in 'Education for Sustainability' to support people to take collective action on the systemic roots of social inequality and ecological destruction. The website is also a cultural artefact and archive of the local activist knowledge this research produced. It offers an alternative and more accessible form of publishing to traditional academic papers ​
The workshop practice developed through this research was a fusion of art-based Popular Adult Education, Social Practice Art, the Arts and Crafts Movement, (Social) Permaculture, STEAM, Transdisciplinary learning and research, and deep forms of Education for Sustainability.​ This toolkit aims to support inclusive public participation in activism, community capacity building for collective action ,and strategic interdisciplinary collaborations. The research took place in the West of Ireland using a creative participatory action research approach. This involved the collective contributions of 14 public co-researchers and 35 public participants who co-created and participated in a series of creative holistic praxis workshops.
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​This Art-Based Participatory Action Research Project PhD was initiated by G_______, an artist, educator and activist-researcher from the West of Ireland. The research was hosted by The Limerick School of Art & Design, TUS, & Funded by Research Ireland/The Irish Research Council through the GOIPG scholarship award. This PhD ran from 2020 to 2024, but PAR never ends.
Míle Buíochas to all those who contributed to this research & to the Irish Research Council /Research Ireland for funding it.
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Our Story
This project started with one person trying to bring more creativity, nature connection, experiential and embodied approaches to their activism and education work. From this seed a temporary collective grew and co-produced the resources on this website. The researching community consisted of members of the public interested in social-environmental justice activism. They found the workshops 'a great way to get out of your head and into your body.' and 'to get away from 'talking heads' when doing activism work.
Language Hack - A Radical Glossary
Language is power, and similarly to education and culture, it can be used as a tool of oppression or liberation. Here you will find some powerful radical lingo in bite sized descriptions to add to your political literacy toolbox. These terms have been produced through the intergenerational labour of people acting within social movements throughout history. They describe ways in which vested interests use power as a tool of oppression and ways that power can be reclaimed by people to develop collective agency to fight for justice and equality.
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Holistic Praxis Workshops
Here you will find links to 17 workshop reports. These reports offer workshop outlines which you can use or adapt to your own practice. The reports also illustrate practice outcomes and links to other resources relevant to each workshop.
The workshops are based on a holistic praxis process. Praxis, in the popular education tradition, is a group learning process which involves collective reflection and dialogue on lived experience of social struggle to inform collective political actions for change orientated to emancipatory social transformation (Freire 1970).
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Acknowledgements
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Massive thanks to the people who generously contributed their time, knowledge and labour as co-researchers of this project. Whether you came for five workshops or one, your collective lived experience of struggle, your activist insights, and your ongoing curiosity about how to bring about just change contributed to a creative holistic learning-for-action resource which can benefit the many.
Co-researchers are listed in alphabetical order:
Katie Burke, Eve Campbell, Cynthia Cox, Kate Daly, Clair Fitzgerald, Christina Iancu, Nick Jones, Kat Gribkoff, Joe Nix, Claire Murray, Kate O’ Brien, Su Powel, Anna Swisher, Fiona Mae White,
and guest co-researcher Ciana Lucy Spel.