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.
Radical creative & holistic workshops to support people bring about just change, together
Research Journey Summary
'We are more powerful than we think/imagine.
If we can come together more, we can affect more positive change in our world, both inner and outer' Co-researcher CF
Summary of the Research Activities
The co-researching community, or collective, was formed through an open public call for co-researchers to co-research how we can 'make change together' and develop holistic approaches, or tools, for learning-for-collective-action for just change.
Holistic here encompasses all forms of knowledges and ways of creating knowledge but in particular experiential ways of learning
creative eco embodied,
The purpose of developing these tools for collective action was to increase inclusivity in social-environmental justice movements through holistic and experiential modes of engagement, learning and action planning rather than simply relying on verbal communication which can exclude the voices of many people. The research also sought to work holistically as social-environmental issues require all types of knowledge to solve and cannot be solved by a single 'expert' group.
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The research was undertaken using an arts based approach to Participatory Action Research.
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14 people participated during the outreach workshop phase.
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7 people subsequently participated in the core co-researching workshop phase. Some of these people were involved in multiple workshops and others came for just one.
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Another 40 people participated in various public workshop events arising from the core researching phase.
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We actioned 4 outreach workshops, 4 core co-researching workshops, and public workshops: These included:
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Community Lino printing at Climate Camp Ireland 2022,
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Climate Camp Zine Making weekend,
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Spin Card N Chat and Card and Chat at the Rekindle Festival,
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Samhain: Ritual Action for Change
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[EM] Powergeneration
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Spinning intentions for change.
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The research journey took us around North West Clare, South West Galway, down to North Kerry, Ireland and Catalunya in North Spain.
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Through the collective activities of all the people taking part in this research and the final analysis of the research, a collection of holistic resources for participating in social justice movement activism were co-produced. This research practice informed the purpose, content and shape of the website as a radical holistic learning-for-action space relevant to the needs of activists of different backgrounds, experience and practice. Mile Buiochas to all involved.
Giselle Harvey: Digital Illustration of Research Praxis Journey , 2024
An epoch of the community’s experiences was distilled from their collective research activities, that is:
People are yearning for community and connection to humans and nature, and want to live creative, loving, and flourishing lives. And they are yearning for collaborative effective strategies to claim power and bring about change that supports all the community of life.
In response to these life dreams and learning needs the website hedgespace.net was created from the collective voices and activities of the co-researching community.
It is an open-source public community learning resource, a research archive, and a cultural artefact. It is also a publicly accessible form of research publishing in keeping with the principles of PAR.
Giselle Harvey: Map of the Research Geographical Trail, 2024.
Our Research Geographical Trail
Giselle Harvey: Digital Illustration of Research Praxis Geographical Trail Journey , 2024
Collective Action can be Wild, Fluid and uneven in how it unfolds. Sometimes groups and campaigns are clearly defined, often though even within strong social movement organisations a high degree of people coming and going, showing when and where they can is common. Often peoples contribution to an organization, campaign or project is like a seed that someone else may germinate, or which may get carried elsewhere and grow, or show up in unexpected places.
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We are more powerful than we think/imagine.
If we can come together more, we can affect more positive change in our world, both inner and outer Co-researcher CF
About the Research Methodology
Participatory Action Research (PAR)
PAR is a collaborative democratic research approach which originated from radical adult education and social movements. It has a philosophy about knowledge (epistemology) which challenges the way knowledge is produced in the academy decontextualised from the lives of ordinary people effected by the issues being researched. It also challenges who benefits from this approach to knowledge making, who can and should produce knowledge, and asks what is valid knowledge and who decides. PAR is also about acting on social and environmental problems rather than answering a research question.
Therefore, in PAR, people outside of academic contexts can take a leading role in research as active collaborative decision makers informing the research direction drawing from their own lived experience of these issues, rather than simply being participants in a research study responding to set research questions posed by a researcher.
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PAR WAS SELECTED AS THE CORE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR THIS PROJECT AS IT ENABLES THE HOLISTIC LEARNING FOR ACTION TOOLS BEING DESIGNED FOR THE PUBLIC TO BE CO-CREATED WITH THE PUBLIC. THIS MAKES THE RESEARCH MORE USEFUL AND RELEVANT TO THE PUBLIC WHO WILL ULTIMATELY USE THEM.​
AS THE DISABILITY MANTRA GOES, 'NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US'. ( ) Charlton, J. (1998) Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment
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PAR places emphasis on ‘collective self-reflective enquiry,
the co-construction of knowledge, and the development of skills for speaking back to power and organizing for change with others’
(Kemmis and McTaggart 1998, p. 5).
'PAR is collaborative research, learning & action used to gather information to use for change on social or environmental issues. It involves people who are concerned about or affected by an issue taking a leading role in producing and using knowledge about it (Pain et al., 2011, p 2).
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PAR is distinct because:
• it is driven by a group of people who have a stake in the social and environmental issues being researched
• it offers a democratic model of who can produce, own and use knowledge,
• it can be collaborative at every stage, involving discussion, pooling skills and working together.
• it is intended to result in some action, change or improvement on the issue being researched' (Kindon 2008).
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PAR is complex then as it must be both open and responsive to the research needs of co-researchers, which may not be known at the start of the research, whilst also building in experienced support (scaffolding) for the group to undertake their inquiry and action activities together as they become known.
Praxis (Freire, 1970) is an iterative process approach used in PAR & Radical Adult which enables groups of learners/researchers to figure out what they want to do & why.
It is the core process that underpins this research it holds all the other practices, the people, events and analysis of the research together. ​​
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The call was made through print and online posters which invited people from the general public interested in collective social-environmental change-making to come to art-based participatory action outreach workshops.
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Initially, the outreach approach was based on an outdoor public intervention workshop titled [EM] Powergeneration, a type of creative Public STEAM workshop. This workshop would exemplify the holistic (transdisciplinary) tools that were to be co-researched experientially through practice. Due to a number of issues, this outreach workshop was not actioned.
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This led to a slight reshaping of the beginning of the research to a more art focused adult & community education outreach workshop than the holistic workshop approach originally designed. The details of these issues and the changes they brought about are contained in the accompanying exegesis (a practice based research report).
However, the [EM] Powergeneration workshop did develop during a later phase of the research. This lead to other workshops and resources being generated by the lead Researcher, Giselle Harvey, who designed and initiated the research PhD.
