This article discusses how study material created for intra-party education for the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Swedish Left Party constructs party identities, by analysing how study material developed for instructing new party members frames the party's organisation, history, and ideology. While the analysis reveals that both parties frame their organisations as popular movements, they differ in their framing of history and ideology: the Social Democrats articulate their position as a governing party, whereas the Left Party situates itself in relation to a broader left-leaning movement and discusses contemporary political issues. Regardless of these differences, both parties construct flexible identities without clear excluding mechanisms. In short, everyone is welcome. The sparse emphasis on persuading members of the parties' policies suggests that the parties assume that new members already agree with the righteousness of their politics. This leads to an educational situation that predominantly aims to create a feeling of belonging and to make members feel engaged in 'the movement'.
This dissertation aims to contribute knowledge of how five movement-related left parties in Sweden and Spain formulate education for their members. By analysing (i) the Swedish Social Democratic Workers' Party, (ii) the Swedish Left Party, (iii) the Spanish Social Democratic Workers' Party, (iv) the Spanish United Left and (v) the Spanish Podemos, the study interprets how organised educational activities are formulated and motivated with the aim to instigate member engagement. The analysis builds on interviews with leading party representatives and study leaders, study and course materials, and other official documents, which steer how the parties organise their education. With a framing perspective as a theoretical itinerary, the study emphasises parties' education as a setting where meaning is formulated to initiate collective action.The four included papers stress and discuss how educational material is formulated and how the parties perceive and motivate organised party education. Papers 1 and 2 analyse text materials and shows how educational materials establish narratives that invites the members to become active in the parties. Even though the educational narrative is welcoming, the study materials also reinforce frames of how to be schooled into becoming an ideal party member. Papers 3 and 4 study interview materials and suggest that member education is interpreted as something that strengthens parties' movement relations, provides useful training, opens up a space for political reflection, and constructs a feeling of community within the parties.The dissertation emphasises that these five movement-related left parties perceive their educational activities as settings that create relations between the party and its members. Applying the framing perspective to the understudied educational practices that transpire in parties contributes to deepening the theoretical understanding of how education can be formulated in relation to its bearing on creating collective identities.
This article interprets how five left-leaning parties in Sweden and Spain intend to politically socialise their members through the use of educational activities. By applying a framing perspective on interviews with leading party representatives from the five parties, the analysis theoretically illuminates how educational activities can be a tool for mobilisation. While the interviewed party representatives stress that educating their members has several functions for a party, three salient frames about party education are identified in the interview data as follows: education as (i) movement building, (ii) training members and leaders and (iii) deliberative reflection. Categorising the different ways that in which education is understood shows how different political motives are integrated into parties’ education. Hence, the findings emphasise the intermediating role that education plays between a party organisation and its members in left parties.
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