Learning (for) Civil Disobedience in Poland

Abstract

This chapter looks at the significance of individual and collective counter-hegemonic practices of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) movement in Poland. Founded on the idea of civil disobedience, these practices essentially contest the passive attitude of political decision-makers vis-à-vis threats associated with the global climate crisis. We explore the dimensions of learning (for) civil disobedience and show the relevance of this activity for the civic awareness of XR activists and as a differentiator for the movement as a whole. Our qualitative research is based on narrative interviews with selected XR activists from Warsaw and Wrocław and serves as a critical exploratory study. Importantly, it is also a tool of pedagogical intervention which aims to demonstrate and strengthen the voice of young people concerned about the fate of our planet in the realities of the hegemony of the neoliberal, neoconservative, populist state.

Five essays on doing research on adult learning in times of pandemic and war: thinking aloud

“…The impact of the lockdowns everywhere was felt in the metropolises and in the country, in the comfortable rich world and the world of the townships and settlements in contradictory ways, but lessons for sustainable urban life for 55% of the world population and a certain tenuous sharpening of focus on the global climate crisis were moments of the crisis, however inconsistent and inadequate they remain (worldbank.org, 2021). A sharpened sense of social justice, justice for all, in the global North as well as the global South, and the central role of the global climate crisis have been stated, albeit hesitantly, at UN level (un.org, 2022) but more consistently and urgently by activist organisations such as Fridays for Future, Greenpeace, Global Citizen or newer initiatives such as Extinction Rebellion (Gontarska, Rudnicki & Zańko, 2022). So much for Joni's Both sides Now.…”