PAES 8 october 2013 Linda Lundgaard Andersen Professor. phd Dept. of Psychology and Educational Studies Roskilde University [email protected] 1

INTERSECTIONAL LEARNING: NEW VENUES

FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN

COLLABORATIVE AND TRANSFORMATIVE

FORMATS

PAES 8 october 2013

Linda Lundgaard Andersen

Professor. phd

Dept. of Psychology and Educational Studies

Roskilde University

[email protected]

1

2

OUTLINE New venues for learning in collaborative

and transformative format? My key note argument Concepts of learning and how governing

principles influence and frame learning Hybridity and hybrid organisations 2 scenarios of intersectional learning

arenas in hybrid organisations Intersectional learning – coming from a

critical landscape of learning theories Summing up: potentials and challengesLinda Lundgaard Andersen || Professional Lifelong Learning, 6th Conference, June

2013. Leeds University

Linda Lundgaard Andersen || Tiltrædelsesforelæsning 3

ROOTS AND HORIZON life history, learning and ethnographies of

human service organisations work life learning and administrative

procedures in public bodies learning, social entrepreneurship and social

innovation in welfare services, democracy, forms of governance,

leadership and hybridity in human services ……. leading to

a continuous interest in how and if learning can change people, settings, organisations and society = how can transformative learning occur


NEW VENUES FOR PROFESSIONAL LEARNING IN COLLABORATIVE AND TRANSFORMATIVE FORMATS?

In contemporary welfare services the organizational – and learning - landscape is under reconfiguration. In a conventional manner of speaking organizations or enterprises is often tripartite in origin: private, public or civic – and this division has naturally been a driving force for much organizational, learning and work place research.

Consequently research within the professionals, work life and learning have predominantly been situated within one or several of these organizational types but lesser attention has been devoted to the intersections or weak boundaries between these three entities.

These new venues for productivities and learning have different labeling, for instance public-private collaboration, public-civic-private collaboration and partnerships, social enterprises, social business – and share some common features often identified under the term ‘ hybrid organizations’, although they also differ from each other.


In this lecture I offer a critical exploration of these new hybrid organizations and discuss the implications for our theoretical and practical informed understanding of learning and learning arenas. In two scenarios I sketch out the type of professional activities, of governing formats and of learning tasks situated in exemplary hybrid organizations. From this I generate my conceptualization of intersectional learning as new venues for professional learning in collaborative and transformative formats – departing from a landscape of learning concepts and understandings.


KEY ARGUMENT Hybrid organisations in human service and health

care is part of an encreasing development in welfare systems in many countries – a development seeking to develop an alternative economy, new forms of solidarity, of business and organisational models, of empowerment and democracy, of co-production between professionals and citizens

As such these entities provide new platforms for human learning and interaction, professional practice, reflections and actions of a perhaps particular promising kind stemming from the visions and objectives of hybrid organisations, their governance, their learning and vocational paths and their professional and civic networks

CONCEPTS OF LEARNING Learning theory is rich on concepts on

transformative leaning such as experiential and collaborative learning, social learning, situated or action learning as well as more critical concepts like sociological imagination and critical pedagogy.

But learning is equivalent a potent tool of implementation, disciplining and alignment and as such paves the way for numerous welfare strategies and societal transformations.

Learning therefore is ambiguous and ambivalent due to its capacity of transforming human lives, social structures and organizations but also function as effective tools of political, professional and societal needs and performances

8

Linda Lundgaard Andersen || Professional Lifelong Learning, 6th Conference, June 2013. Leeds University

The imperative welfare governance discourses in Denmark

Governing principle

Learning arena

Evidence

Self-management

and site based steering

(since 90ties)

Top downCentralisation and cost

efficiencyDecentralisation and

democracy

Local sites of self-management

Users councilProfessionals as

consultants

Quality assessmentPerformance contract

Quantitative evaluationCase studies

Local

developmental work

(since 90ties)

Bottom up‘let 1000 flowers bloom’

Loose framingSome will survive and

improve practice

Action learning‘Trial and error’

Professionals and users co-work

Local engagement

Single case studyMeta-evaluations

Qualitative parameters

Social entrepreneurship &Social enterprises

(since 00ties)

Bottom upMany agents pursuing

different agendasWeak framing by state

Local government initiative

Action learning‘Learning by

doing’Training and competenceParticipative

learning

Social return on investment

Triple bottom line Change theory

MonitoringCase analysis

HYBRIDITY AS A CONCEPT Hybridity is originally defined as a cross between two

separate races or cultures. A hybrid is something that is mixed, and hybridity is simply mixture. As an explicative term, hybridity became a useful tool in forming a fearful discourse of racial mixing that arose toward the end of the 18th Century

The development of hybridity theory as a discourse of anti-essentialism marked the height of the popularity of academic "hybridity talk“ - to eliminate essentialist thinking and practices (namely racism)

To see hybridity as a cultural effect of globalization. For example, hybridity is the ‘cultural logic’ of globalization as it "entails that traces of other cultures exist in every culture

Hybridity in linguistics and arts, gender and family …..and now hybridity in organisations as labeling for

hybrid formats9

ONE POINT OF VIEW JOHANNA MAIR, 2006

We argue that social enterprises mix the economic principles of the market, redistribution and reciprocity and hybridize their three types of economic exchange so that they work together rather than in isolation from each otherMair, 2006:318

10

SECOND POINT OF WIEW:BODE, EVERS AND SCHULTZ, 2006

11

12

HYBRID ORGANISATIONS – A

PROFILE Both social and economic dimensions

Income recirculation, donations, voluntary participation, commercial revenue, business activities, inclusion,

Relationship between social, public and political authority Added value to social organisations in a publicness grid

Social dimension: local social responsibility, benefit commmunity and

disadvantaged group of citizens, one-member-one-vote, stakeholder representatives in governing body, more relaxed profit distribution constraint

Role in society: better distribution of ressources through citizens volunteered

time, create jobs, social capital and promote local development generate a large amount of trust

Mair og Noboa, 2003


HYBRID ORGANIZATIONS In our traditions of modernity we used to think about professional expertise as institutionalised and individually mastered specialist knowledge based on scientific evidence and reason. Today the trend is towards de-institutionalisation, hybrid forms of organisation and co-operative mastering of knowing and knowledge production, towards open expertise produced in multi-actor networks. The paradox concerns the need not only to support organisational and individual learning but also to transfer knowledge and expertise into and from productive practice (Karvinen-Ninikoski, 2003:12)

BLENDED LEARNING IN MULTI-FUNCTIONAL ARENAS Multi-functional learning arenas:

Motives and motivation: individual drives as payment, acknowledgement, making a difference, to be or become a social entrepreneur

Vocational training, peer-to-peer, instructional training, service learning, to become a labor market subject

Democracy and governance: how to participate, govern and voice your opinion, how to take on responsibility

Develop a social enterprise: organisational drives and structures, strategy, negotiate with local partners, authorities

Community work: develop and integrate SE as local business, commnity development and empowerment, co-develop sustainability


REFLEXIVE EXPERTICEIt seems that expertise will be created co-operatively in multi-professional co-operation and communities, as traditional profession-centred solutions do not work. Organisations are also changing in their constellation and new flexible, light and innovative hybrid networks and knotworks are emerging. Reflexive expertise can be seen as a kind of orientation process relating experience to powerful meanings and calling also for an epistemological standpoint in contextual and experiential factors of knowledge generation.


ORGANISATIONS IN TRANSFORMATION

Labels, formats and objectives changes moving towards hybridity:

from employment integration activities to social enterprises and partnerships

from secundary health care activities (e.g. rehabilitation) to professionel-user co-production shaped by NGO’s and local society

from a primary health preventive focus to preventive health centers in co-creation with NGO’s, civic society and sometimes private enterprises

Consequently leading to professions and professionals in transformation: from mono to plural functions and competences from sole authority to co-production and shared responsibility From work ‘for’ to working ‘with’

A LEARNING AND ORGANISATIONAL PROFILE Hybridity embeds a strong arena of production,

vocational activities and a learning environment Building stones of social entrepreneurship: social

value, network, producing, governance and democracy – in a learning perspective

intersectional learning = learning in intersection: learning occurs in a multitude of different parallel or displaced arenas including peer-to-peer, vocational training, social learning, learning and practicing democracy and governance

Mutual affecting each other – cannot be understood as seperate entities since they are intertwined - some times for the good some times for the bad – leading to transformative learning and competence development

17

BLENDED AND INTERSECTIONAL LEARNING Intersectionality: apply the concept of intersectionality from the feminist

sociological concept by Crenshaw and McCall as a methodology of studying ‘the relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of social relationships and subject formations’.The theory suggests - and seeks to examine how—various biological, social and cultural categories such as gender, race, class, ability, sexual orientation and other axes of identity interact on multiple and often simultaneous levels, contributing to systematic social inequality

intersectional learning is then to study the multiple dimensions and modalities of learning, social relationships and subject formations – and to inquire how - and if - this leads to equality and inequality as well as empowerment, competences and life skills

A SOCIAL ENTERPRISE:SYDHAVNSCOMPAGNIET


SYDHAVNSCOMPAGNIET Social Enterprise and WISE (work integration social

enterprise) in Copenhagen providing jobtraining, recycling shop, mobile coffeebike, local community acitivities and democracy: culture food and cultural festivals, handiman business

The enterprise had 4 employees: 2 social workers, a handiman and a manager – and a group of 50 local citizens coming on a regular basis

Based on her phd thesis work Charlotte Rosenberg performed a microanalysis identifying the intangible aspects of the many and diverse relationships in the different spaces at his enterprise - explaining the details that creates change. The analytical approach was concentrated on the interactions between the individuals participating – uses, citizens and professionals. She observed and noted the imperceptible occurrences which toke place in the coming together of the different individuals and their potential for change.


I

A key feature in understanding the transformations for the users and individuals involved is that there are fluid boundaries between the users, volunteers and activated individuals. One is not necessarily either one or the other, but can flexibly move in and out of the different roles that different arenas provide

The absence of boundaries provides a variety of options for users to be or becoming in many different ways simultaneously = intersectional learning. Different regulated and unregulated arenas in eg recycling shop, in the coffee shop, in meetings arenas, in handyman business provides spaces for users where they themselves can compose their activity and develop in their own pace and place


The combination of regulated and unregulated arenas in the enterprise is significant for the way in which the users, the volunteers and professionals live their lives and at the same time is significant for the ways in which they perceive themselves and others. The relationship between the staff and the users is equally characterised by smooth and hard elements. There is no one single way of being a member of staff: it is possible to be a member of staff in different ways and the differences also depend on which physical and psychological space the member of staff is participating in. There is no either/or.


THE BRIDGE – A SOCIAL ECONOMY ORGANISATION

24

A CASESTUDY Drop in centre for the socially excluded but

also facilitated the mainstream local community

Situated in a provincial town in Denmark Typical Danish WISE – work integration social

enterprise combining a high degree of innovation and creativity with a high degree of public subvention and market dynamics

The Bridge was a quite successful social enterprise that nevertheless had to close down after a number of years due to lack of financial support

25

ACTIVITY PROFILE a community project aimed at providing different

activities for the local community at large. It hosted a second-hand shop, a textile workshop and

a café serving meals at very reasonable rates. The overall objective of community building was combined with goals of work integration, pursued through hiring people on different forms of unemployment benefits for different work tasks within the organisation sold on market terms creating an income

The participants were offered different job experiences, according to their own preferences and ability, under the supervision of staff members from the organisation. The organisation foremost operated as a way of kick-starting individual processes of development and qualifications that led to an evaluation of criteria’s for reintegration of participants into the labour market or different educational programs – and to train them in participation, decision making and strategic work

26

The Bridge combined an innovative drop-in centre for the most socially exposed groups in the local area, but it was also an organisation that applied to mainstream citizens in the local community.

At the time when the project was the most dynamic, the Bridge consisted of a second hand shop, a workshop on textile work, a rental shop, a café, several social re-training initiatives and offers for social welfare recipients and long-term disability recipients, a regular gathering point for the cultural activities of local Turks and Kurds and finally an adult education centre offering courses to elder people.

The project provided a large group of lonely and worn out people in the local community with a place to expand their social network. The project also made a small income from sale of products and services

27

THE MANAGER “The positive about this place relates to our legal

affiliation. If we come up with new ideas then we are free to implement these – it we have the funding. If we want to do an excursion or another new initiative we can do it. Nobody controls us. I refer to the board and that’s it. The adverse effect on the running of the Bridge is about the limited financial resources – and our market dependence. Some of our ideas – for instance if we would like to have the local people to join us for a dancing evening every week, we are not able to do due to our financial situation. Or if we would like to give open lectures then we need to be able to provide money for that too.”Ulla, manager

28

PROBLEMS ”We have had some income increase. We did a

new enterprise where we did theatre make up. We had a significant increase the first year, but the second year income stagnated because we had emptied the market. Our rental shop has its ups and downs depending on how much PR we do. We have been somewhat cautious because we worry that someone would accuse us of unfair competition. The private enterprises are not very happy with us. Many local social enterprises have had similar problems. They are not very likely to help social enterprises that aim at getting individuals in job-activation. They see us as competitors getting funded by the public. So the director of the local labour market administration has offered his help if such a case should turn up.”Ulla, manager

29

TRANSFORMING ”The Bridge incorporates what is known as the

Danish tradition of a ’Folkehus’ (People’s house) bringing the atmosphere and group identity specific to this. Then we are a ’community house’ for the local people as well. And this is an obstacle. When people join us and want to be part of the Bridge, they are immediately faced with the many practical functions. For one thing to make this café work every day…what happens is that they quickly become volunteers. In reality they are users. But the individual person feels better when being a volunteer. This means that some of the newcomers at once become part of the staff - whereas others become users when they use the sewing workshop to sew their clothes. Some would want to fix something; others would want to learn something. All in all around 54 persons enter the house every day.”

30

THE VOLUNTEERS “One thing is that it looks good on paper

to have volunteers. Another thing is that it is an essential moral message to send to the activated clients: that some are actually here of their own free will. Even though the clients don’t pose the attitude that this is forced labour- there is an element of force in it. So the fact that the clients see that many volunteers slaves – just like me but that is different – and that the volunteers never have a sick day! That makes an impression.”

31

EMPOWERMENT One thing worries me though – whenever I

am away team work and acitivities slow down. We really try very hard to involve everybody – and we are quite good at this! But when I am not there nobody seems to take my place. They do their jobs and activities but they don’t bring it further – and we sometimes have to do that if we are to survive. I have been thinking quite hard about this. How to understand this. And the only thing I can think of is that for some people this is a very long process”

BLENDED LEARNING IN MULTI-FUNCTIONAL ARENAS Multi-functional learning arenas:

Motives and motivation: individual drives as payment, acknowledgement, making a difference, to be or become a social entrepreneur, lifehistory and learning trajectories

Vocational training, peer-to-peer, instructional training, service learning, to become a labor market subject

Democracy and governance: how to participate, govern and voice your opinion, how to take on responsibility

Develop a social enterprise: organisational drives and structures, strategy, negotiate with local partners, authorities

Community work: develop and integrate SE as local business, community development and empowerment, co-develop sustainability


SUMMING UP Hybrid organisations –as demonstrated – can

be displayed as organisations aiming at human growth and empowerment, social values through the production af welfare services or products via market dynamics

They offer blended and intersectional learning in multitude learning arenas – in which marginal citizens work along side with welfare professionals like social workers, social pedagogs and assistents, health care professionals, teachers in shared positions and actions, through co-creation and co-production


Thank you for your attention

Documents

PAES 8 october 2013 Linda Lundgaard Andersen Professor. phd Dept. of Psychology and Educational Studies Roskilde University [email protected] 1