Special issue on lived experience, learning, community activism and social change

This special issue arises from the urgency expressed by many adult educator practitioners, theorists and activist-researchers for the need to draw attention to the numerous sites of community activism, learning and social change that are currently taking place across the globe. While the relentless push of neoliberalism has struck at the heart of adult education provision in many countries, including that provided by universities, institutions of further education, international development agencies, NGOs, vocational training centres and the local government sector, what can adult educators learn and what is being learnt when we turn to sites of community activism? For example, Tett and Hamilton (2019, p. 253), drawing on Williams’ (1989) ‘resources of hope’, point to the importance of ‘... persisting with what may seem like mundane, everyday, acts of resistance that are based on seeing and seising opportunities to do and say things differently’. Raymond Williams identified the cultural hegemony implicit in elite education systems as leading to ‘a very restricted and privileged and stagnant view of the world’ (Williams 1983, p. 255). He saw a particular place for adult education, as implicitly activist, seeking to ‘unseat the status quo’ (Walters 2022), tackling cognitive injustice and cultural hegemony. This special issue celebrates his view that