A radical holistic edge-fusion learning space with a collection of really useful collaborative tools for making social-ecological just change.
A radical holistic edge-fusion learning space with a collection of really useful collaborative tools for making social-ecological just change.
Workshops
HEdge Space
A Holistic Do-it-Together Tool kit.
Praxis tools to support people bring about just change, together
Workshops
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Date: April 2022
Location:
Miltown Malbay Community Centre, Co. Clare
Co-Researchers: 3: CC,CI, FMW
GH Facilitating, CC grounding exercise
Purpose:
Exploring Really Useful Questions to establish a clearer agenda and point us towards an action
Miltown Malbay Community Centre, Co. Clare
Duration: 3 hours
Establishing a clearer agenda using really useful questions generated in previous workshops:
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How do we claim power?
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Is this strategic?
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How can you engage the disengaged on the issues?
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How can we nurture human earth connections?
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Can we link up?
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How much time do you have available for this group work?
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Where can we intervene?
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What tools we have? What else do we need?
Exploring Themes and Really Useful Questions to inform Political Action
After tea, a short grounding meditate exercise and the usual reflection questions about why we came back we explored some really useful questions gathered from earlier workshops to help refine our purpose.
Why did you come back?
To follow the process and see how it develops. There were some really good ideas of the last workshop, and we can see how we develop to reconnect with the group and community, with people with shared concerns for the ecological and social state of the world as it is now.
Curiosity connection clarity creativity
Co-researcher responses to straight forward questions are harvested into bullet point lists and used on the website as tools. E.g. lists of who we can link up with? Where can we intervene? Some questions and words however generated deeper discussion to clarify their meaning, and relevance to the group, and in some cases, negative emotions.
Working on the really useful questions,
Kindons PAR toolkit and other resources
The Handouts
How do we claim power?
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Paul Lyndon’s work. Martial arts for trauma recovery. Embodiment; love and power – together. Techniques to build internal power and belief/knowledge in your own power, linked with love, so love the aggressor while holding your power.
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Defining what it means to us.
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See what resources are in the group to serve different meanings of power and which will empower participants.
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Red rebel silences are powerful, tai chi, personal our community?
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Really Useful Question: How do we claim Power? Personal or Community?
Is this strategic?
What does strategic mean? Bring the reaction that may be negative- but it’s important as a way to account there’s something, to reach people. Be part of efficiency
How can you engage the disengaged on the issues?
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Create awareness.
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taking people in a journey from where they are at.
How can we nurture human earth connections?
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Field trips to Woodlands, tree ID, beach cleans.
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More community allotment gardening is.
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Foraging
Can we link up?
Who with?
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Environmental groups
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XR or national, instructors: theatreXR
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local groups i.e. three groups, with the group any type of environmental group
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local community groups people that are not environmental e.g ICA any groups through community centres theatre writing/art groups/
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future Proof Clare: walking caravan
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Creativity and change social feminist groups.
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Cloughjordan Eco Village/Cultivate
or what:
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SDGs sustainable development goals- framework for drilling ideas down to core
How can time spent here be additive the other commitments endeavours now and in the future?
Time and efficient use of your time and labour considerations
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Energy depletion is a real thing and especially now.
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Good question I don’t know yet but would really like to look at that. Least amount of energy for most impact efficient/flow. Feldenkrais- awareness through movement. some kind of energy protection are movement to sustain energy and not get depleted.
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Efficient = rest
Where can we intervene?
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government buildings, CAT scans offices countryside/small towns villages.???
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Doing performative walking/pilgrimage
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building and walking
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Die in and marking the bodies so an imprint is left, and people are reminded?
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everywhere- Street councils
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How - be clear concise controlled go to them.
What tools we have? What else do we need?
Tools we have:
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meditation/compassion
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FIST = feelings images sense connection thoughts
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NVC – non-violent communication-
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Video making, graphic visuals, creative writing
Tools we/might need.
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the ecology guide NVC
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theatre
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puppets as teachers
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workshops on strategic avenues
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further dialogue on efficiency
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Maybe to organise and facilitate short sessions
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to improve some skills, we narrow down.
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how to be strategic?
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trauma informed practice (curiosity)
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Materials; banners flags
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Costumes? If we do walking pilgrimage or do we all just the same?
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Spoken word, banners-write them.
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Images
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stickers/flyers for us to hand out. LOVE & POWER
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How to be strategic? Communication?
Claiming co-researcher autonomy – peer facilitated short sessions
The question on how to reclaim our power generated a discussion regarding the multiple meanings of power and empowerment and locations that power can have and what conditions enable power to be enacted. One person felt that it was necessary to claim your own individual power before you could effectively engage in collective power contexts. Some felt individual and collective power can grow together, and that sometimes a sense of individual power emerged, for them, from acting in contexts where collective power was practiced. This was an important discussion to unfold in the context of the research as it spoke back to critiques of empowerment and claims that emancipatory pedagogic practice actualises it. This discussion will be revisited at a later point in the research practice.
The words ‘Strategic’ and ‘being efficient’ irritated people, and through our discussion we concluded that this was because we associated such language with corporations and capitalist cultures of productivity and exploitation. However, people also felt that these words were useful, and that perhaps what they needed was to be more strategic and efficient and asked, what is strategy? How do we act strategically?
One person working in citizenship education referred to her engagement with the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as strategic, as this is where a lot of funding comes from. As the SDGs came up in conversation, I reminded the group about the link between the project and the SDGs and showed them some SDG stencils I have gotten as part of a training in Cloughjordan with creativity and change and Development Perspectives. See blog. It was suggested that we should learn to be strategic, that a strategy workshop would be very beneficial, and perhaps we shouldn’t reject useful concepts because they had been co-opted by corporations.
Discussing how to be strategic and efficient with our own time and energy; we reflected on the permaculture design principle of efficient planning. Could we design our research actions so that co-researchers were not needlessly over laboured? Could we act in a multi-purposeful way? One person proposed that as there were several Red Rebels in the overarching [AB-PAR] group, and that we could do a rebel action in Lahinch. They had been hoping to do this for some time to raise awareness on clean water and sanitations. This idea appealed as it echoed ideas for performance and pilgrimage explored in the last workshop and afforded us an opportunity to practice performance actions together using an existing approach. It also allowed us to act in solidarity with existing groups, easily include more people in a fluid and low participatory way, and link our radical work to the SDGs without feeling compromised (SDG14, clean water). We could in that way act multi-purposefully, strategically, and efficiently. EC not in attendance phoned in and proposed doing a creative action or workshop at climate camp. An event for culture night was also proposed. A Love and Power graphic was discussed and suggested as a potential sticker or badge.
Actions Proposed:
The Red Rebel action proposed: CC supported by CI and FMW, and SP remotely
Red rebel actions are performances which disrupt public space using a creative and strong and silent approach. This action was selected as several people in the co-researching group are engaged in Red Rebel practice within South County Galway and County Clare, and therefore we could act in a multi-purposeful way by acting in solidarity with local Red Rebel groups in tandem with public pedagogy-research. The action minders, as information people, will be available to engage the public regarding questions they may have about the action. Postcards have also been designed and will be available at the action for people to leave feedback if they wish.
Climate Camp Action: EC proposed and declined to be involved in the Red Rebel Action. CI and FMW also interested in climate camp action.
Core Summary
Three public actions were proposed through the core workshops: a Red Rebel Action, a creative workshop at Climate Camp, 2022; and a pilgrimage public performance event for Culture Night 2022.
The second action proposed was to participate in Climate Camp Ireland which took place in County Kerry in August 2022, the full details of which are outlined later. The third action we proposed was a pilgrimage performance public action which could potentially tie in with culture night in September 2022. This action did not go ahead as part of culture night but a version of it did occur much later in the research process, called Samhain, ritual action for change. The red rebel action was cancelled at the last minute, but the detail of the design process and action design are available here.
Timeline
Key Generative Themes From the Sessions
Certain language has negative associations with capitalist culture of corporate productivity and yet the concepts of strategy and efficiency have value in activism work.
Key Really Useful Questions From the Sessions
Resources
Extinction Rebellion | Join The Fight Against Climate and Ecological Collapse
https://ulexproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/sustainable-activism-ulex-signature-trainings.pdf
Certificate in Creativity and Change | Munster Technological University - MTU
Empowerment | Participatory Methods
Liberal vs. Liberating Empowerment IDSB_47_1A_10.190881968-2016.115.pdf
Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) 0800 58 58 58
Extinction Rebellion support tesn@tesn.uk