ESREA Network on Active Democratic Citizenship and Adult Learning

Convenor:
Dr Michal Bron Jr, assoc.prof.
Södertörn Univ. College
S-141 89 Huddinge/Stockholm
Tel: 46 8 608 4306; fax: 46 8 608 4300
E-mail: Michal.Bron(at)sh.se
http: www.sh.se/cbees

Aims/themes of the network:
This network was established as a challenge to the breakdown of the East and Central Europe under Soviet influence. Adult education and active citizenship have a long history of interaction and cross-fertilisation. Europe's recent past provides a myriad of examples of a mutually sustaining partnership between the practices and institutions of adult learning, on the one hand, and of active civic engagement, on the other hand. Think of the coffee shops of eighteenth century London and Rotterdam, the struggle for a free press, or the creation of public libraries and museums, as well as the founding of many local and voluntary associations for bourgeois, popular or working-class enlightenment. Yet if we move from past to present, the relationship becomes much less certain. Is this one more example of a modernist project, now loosing its relevance and purpose in a more individualistic and fragmented society? On the contrary: European research into active citizenship and adult learning is flourishing, partly in least because the questions that it addresses are as lively and as challenging as ever. Introduction, in: Bron, A. Field, J. & Kurantowicz, E. (Eds.) (1998)

History of the Network:
The network has been in existence since the early 1990s, has carried out numerous seminars, and has been recognised as one of the most active and productive networks within ESREA. Prior to the establishment of ESREA in 1991 adult education researchers from Europe met at the conference organised by Wroclaw University in Poland on the theme: Adult Education as a Social Movement. This was effectively the beginning of the ESREA network which held its first meeting 1994 in Wroclaw, Poland. After that, several meetings were held – in 1997 Strobl, Austria, in 1999 Poznan, Poland, in 2001 Bochum, Germany, in 2003 Leuven, Belgium, in 2005 Tallin and 2007 in Braga, Portugal.

Frequency of meetings:
Every second year, although members of the network meet on other occasions and are involved in collaborative publications and projects (e.g. a conference entitled In the Margins of Learning Society and Civil Society, jointly organized in May 2005 with the University of Jouenssu, Finland, Â ESREA ADC Network and the ISA, chapter Rc 04 (sociology of education).

Publications:
Wildemeersch, D., Stroobants, V. & Bron Jr, M. (Eds.) (2005), Active Citizenship and Multiple Identities in Europe. A learning outlook, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang Verlag
Schemmann, M. & Bron Jr, M. (Eds.) (2001), Adult Education and Democratic Citizenship IV, Krakow: Impuls.
Bron Jr, M. & Field, J. (Eds.) (2001), Adult Education and Democratic Citizenship III, Wroclaw: Lower Silesian University College of Education.
Bron, A. Field, J. & Kurantowicz, E. (Eds.) (1998), Adult Education and Democratic Citizenship, II. Karkow: Impuls.
Bisovsky, G. Â Bourgeois, E., Bron Jr, M. et al. (Eds.) (1998),Adult Learning and Social Participation, Wien, VWV
Bron Jr, M. & Malewski, M. (Eds.) (1995), Adult Education and Democratic Citizenship I, Wroclaw: Wroclaw University.

Recent events and conferences:
June 2007 at the University of Minho in Braga, Portugal on the theme: Changing Relationships between the State, Civil Society and the Citizen: Implications for adult education and adult learning