Democracy re-examined: Ghanaian social movement learning and the re-articulation of learning in struggle

Abstract

Ghana has been identified as an important example of democracy in Africa, yet the story of this democratic success overlooks the crucial role social movement activism and learning have played in locally reconfiguring and deepening what democracy means. A key dimension of this overlooked-story is ongoing efforts to contest both local and global power relations. This article presents results from a participatory assessment by Ghanaian activist-educators embedded in these movements of social movement learning in this African democratic context, and adds to contemporary efforts to re-examine how movement learning contributes to challenging globalisation through deepened democracy. Foley's (1999) notion of learning in struggle represents a key lens through which this collaborative understanding emerged. However, this notion is re-articulated in the study in three ways to capture 1) long-term evolving incidental learning, 2) intensive event-based incidental learning, and 3) emergent normative learning approaches. This final distinction led to a rich debate as to which emergent normative approach would be most effective in learning to struggle against globalisation. For many in the study, the ongoing learning processes of livelihood and resource defence movements hold the most promise, especially in light of recent oil discoveries in Ghana that are likely to heighten the intensity of this globalisation.