Learning, Labour, and Environmentalism: Canadian and International Prospects

Authors

  • Peter H. Sawchuk Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto

Abstract

In this paper I argue that for those interested in green, sustainable development, attention needs to be paid to the workplace. It is here where issues of work and intervention by organized labour have an important, under-recognized role to play. Reviewing both Canadian and international governmental reports, union policy, adult education, and social movement–oriented research literature on environmental innovation and conflict, I claim that continued greening of the labour movement represents one of the key challenges of our time, and a key opportunity. Support for union-based educational programming and attention to (labour and environmentalist) activist informal learning are necessary to sustain this claim. The analysis suggests that environmental issues represent a powerful opportunity structure for organized labour that may support the achievement of new organizing momentum and social legitimacy—points that are not lost on the different local and parent unions nor federations, as evidenced by their attempts to reframe the role of organized labour in production vis-à-vis forms of green sustainable production. However, it is also noted that attempts at innovation face barriers in terms of the structure of national labour relations regimes and the dynamics of adult learning within inter-movement conflict.

Résumé

Dans ce papier je me dispute que pour ces intéressé dans vert, le développement durable, les besoins d’attention être payé au lieu de travail. C’est ici où les problèmes de travail et l’intervention par le travail organisé ont un rôle important et sous-reconnu pour jouer. Réexaminer Canadien et les rapports gouvernementaux internationaux, la politique d’union, l’enseignement pour adultes, et le mouvement social–a orienté la littérature de recherche sur l’innovation et le conflit écologique, je réclame que la prise de conscience écologique continué du mouvement travailliste représente un des défis clés de notre temps, et une occasion clé. Le soutien pour union-basé la programme nationale et l’attention éducatives à (le travail et l’écologiste) l’activiste érudition simple est nécessaire

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Published

2009-03-01

How to Cite

Sawchuk, P. H. (2009). Learning, Labour, and Environmentalism: Canadian and International Prospects. Canadian Journal for the Study of Adult Education, 21(2), 37–51. Retrieved from https://cjsae.library.dal.ca/index.php/cjsae/article/view/1076

Issue

Vol. 21 No. 2 (2009): Adult Education in Troubling Times

Section

Articles

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