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Informal and Nonformal Adult Learning in the Coal Seam Gas Protests: Mobilizing Practices and Building an Environmental Justice Movement for Change

journal contribution
posted on 2021-11-01, 00:00 authored by Trace OllisTrace Ollis
This case study research examines informal adult learning in the Lock the Gate Alliance, a campaign against mining for coal seam gas in Central Gippsland, Australia. In the field of the campaign, circumstantial activists learn to think critically about the environment, they learn informally and incidentally, through socialization with experienced activists from and through nonformal workshops provided by the Environmental Nongovernment Organization Friends of the Earth. This article uses Bourdieu’s “theory of practice,” to explore the mobilization of activists within the Lock the Gate Alliance field and the practices which generate knowledge and facilitate adult learning. These practices have enabled a diverse movement to educate the public and citizenry about the serious threat fracking poses to the environment, to their land and water supply. The movements successful practices have won a landmark moratorium on fracking for coal seam gas in the State of Victoria.

History

Journal

Adult Education Quarterly

Volume

71

Article number

ARTN 07417136211005370

Pagination

389-408

ISSN

0741-7136

eISSN

1552-3047

Language

English

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Issue

4

Publisher

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC