Social Movements in the Era of Neoliberal Crisis as Sites for Transformative Adult Learning and Emancipation of Everyday Consciousness
Abstract
In the context of the ongoing capitalistic crisis in Greece, neoliberal memorandum and surveillance policies were imposed while a number of restructuring and institutional modifications were attempted, all of which intensified the general clash as well as the imposition of power relationships and efforts to ideologically manipulate the employees. This resulted in an impressive rise of social movements during the period of 2009-2015. In this paper, we study the social movements' influence to an informal and collective type of learning which adults acquire from them, whether as direct and active participants or as indirect ones. In particular, we study their influence on the ability to reform the comformist character of everyday consciousness in the prevailing social reality and on the formulation of a consciousness that is emancipated from the dominant ideology and aims on social change. The questioning of the memorandum policies does not entail, in a self-fullfilling way, the awakening and social emancipation of the participants from the opposed movements. However, the crisis overthrows the limits of the operational efficiency and compromise of everyday consciousness, thus raising disorienting dilemmas and conflicts that demand reconsideration. These processes create the conditions for a transformative learning, providing the opportunity for a meaningful connection with the very essence of phenomena, in order to achieve knowledge and comprehension of social reality. It is a fact that may lead to an active involvement and conscious aspiration to change this reality.
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