Reformers, Activists, Intellectuals, and the Circulation of Knowledge
Studies in Social, Cultural, and Popular Educational Movements in Europe, 1815–1973
Summary
The contributions collected here exemplarily span a broad field of diverse historical developments on a national and transnational European level including nationalist movements, and 'völkisch'-national-socialist manifestations.
Excerpt
Table Of Contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: Ideas, Movements, and Circulation of Knowledge (Barry J. Hake, Kirsi Ahonen, and Christian H. Stifter)
- From Social Enlightenment for the ‘Common Man’ to ‘Refresher Classes’: Development of ‘Extended Elementary Schools’ for (Young) Adults in the Netherlands, 1813–1848 (Barry J. Hake)
- Society for the Common Benefit: A cultural repertoire articulating ‘Christian Sociability’
- Towards a ‘restorative’ repertoire for popular (adult) education, 1813–1823
- Refresher schools as an ‘extended’ elementary education, 1823–1848
- Industrialisation and the confessional challenge to non-denominational ‘extended elementary education’
- Conclusion
- Educating or Agitating? Educational Activities in the Finnish Workers’ Movement from the 1880s to the 1910s (Kirsi Ahonen)
- The liberal workers’ movement as an educational project
- Education by the socialist workers’ organisations in Tampere
- Conclusion
- Adult Education through the Press: Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete (Newspaper for Ladies) 1895–1908 (Zeynep Alica)
- Introduction
- Historical background: Women’s lives and transformations in the Tanzimat period (1839–1908)
- Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete: A newspaper for women’s education
- Conclusion
- The Danish Home Economics Movement between Nation-State Formation and Women’s Citizenship at the Turn of the Twentieth Century (Annette Rasmussen and Karen E. Andreasen)
- Introduction
- Home economics education as democratic rights and duties of Nordic nation-states in the early twentieth century
- Historical sources and analytical approach
- Home economics education as a concern of the state and a democratic right
- ‘Military service’ for women as a democratic duty
- Conclusion
- Early Innovations in Professional Development for Adult Educators during the Weimar Republic in Germany (Francesca Baker)
- Theoretical framework, background, and sources
- Training courses developed by the Prussian Ministry for Science, Art and Education 1919–1925
- Training Courses at the German Academy of Politics 1927–1933
- Comparison
- Conclusion
- Social Change by Right-Wing Movements: The Ideas of Bruno Tanzmann, the Artamanen Movement, and the Volkshochschule Movement in Germany (Bernd Käpplinger)
- Introduction
- Bruno Tanzmann and early appropriations of adult education and learning in Volkshochschulen by right-wing movements
- Right-wing movements, adult education, and learning in Volkshochschulen in the Weimar Republic
- Right-wing movements, adult education, and learning during the transformation from Weimar to early Nazi Germany
- Conclusion
- Teaching Democracy against the Anti-democratic Trend: Civic Education at the Deutsche Volkshochschule Brünn, Czechoslovakia, 1920–1938 (Simon Oehlers)
- Introduction
- Sources and methods
- Adult education and adult civic education as a means of democratisation
- Conception of civic education
- Findings regarding civic education at the German adult education centre in Brno
- Conclusions
- The Stunted Development of Adult Education in Ireland: Case Study of University College Cork, 1911–1973 (Alan McCarthy)
- Introduction
- The origins of lifelong learning in Cork
- Foundation and expansion
- Broadening horizons: ACE, Europe, and the world
- Conclusion
- Notes on contributors
- ESREA and the History of Adult Education and Training in Europe Network
Reformers, Activists, Intellectuals, and the Circulation of Knowledge
Studies in Social, Cultural, and Popular Educational
Movements in Europe, 1815–1973

Berlin · Bruxelles · Chennai · Lausanne · New York · Oxford
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Hake, Barry J., editor. | Ahonen, Kirsi, editor. | Stifter, Christian, editor.
Title: Reformers, activists, intellectuals, and the circulation of knowledge : studies in social, cultural, and popular educational movements in Europe, 1815-1973 / [edited by] Barry J. Hake, Kirsi Ahonen, Christian Stifter.
Description: Berlin ; New York : Peter Lang, [2025] | Series: Studies in pedagogy, andragogy, and gerontagogy, 0934-3695 ; vol. no. 82 | Includes bibliographical references.
Identifiers: LCCN 2025000652 (print) | LCCN 2025000653 (ebook) | ISBN 9783631915660 (hardback) | ISBN 9783631933619 (ebook) | ISBN 9783631933626 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Popular education--Europe--History--19th century. | Popular education--Europe--History--20th century.
Classification: LCC LC196.5.E8 R44 2025 (print) | LCC LC196.5.E8 (ebook) | DDC 370.94--dc23/eng/20250303
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025000652
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2025000653
Cover photo: iStock / AndrzejSowa
Cover design by Peter Lang Group AG
This publication was made possible through the financial support of:

ISSN 0934-3695
ISBN 978-3-631-91566-0 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-93361-9 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-93362-6 (E-PUB)
DOI 10.3726/b22670
© 2025 Peter Lang Group AG, Lausanne (Switzerland)
Published by Peter Lang GmbH, Berlin (Germany)
All rights reserved.
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilization outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
This publication has been peer reviewed.
Contents
Introduction: Ideas, Movements, and Circulation of Knowledge
Adult Education through the Press: Hanımlara Mahsus Gazete (Newspaper for Ladies) 1895–1908
ESREA and the History of Adult Education and Training in Europe Network
Preface
This volume contains revised and edited papers originally presented by their authors at the twelfth seminar organised by a research network of the European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA) devoted to the history of adult education and training. The call for papers invited ESREA members and other researchers to submit papers on the seminar’s theme of Adult education and learning for social change in the 19th–20th centuries: Ideas, movements, and circulation of knowledge. This broad remit was intended to encourage reports of research addressing structural variations in the historical relationships between adult education and training organisations, educational reform associations and social movements in relation to collective and individual emancipation in Europe during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Research seminars organised by this network are distinctive in academic circles due to their adherence to the working method adopted at the first meeting of this ESREA network in 1991. As described in earlier volumes of edited papers from this network, all the papers submitted were distributed to and read by the participants several weeks in advance. During the seminar, each author had five minutes to present her/his/their key ideas, followed by critical commentary from one invited discussant and in-depth discussion with other participants. Based on this critique and discussion of their papers during the seminar, authors were subsequently invited to reconsider their original contributions, and these revised versions have subsequently been uniformly edited for publication in this volume.
Originally scheduled to take place in 2021 to mark the thirtieth anniversary of ESREA’s establishment in 1991, this seminar had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The participants finally came together on 3–7 July 2023 at the residential accommodation of the Bundesinstitut für Erwachsenenbildung (Federal Institute of Adult Education, bifeb) at Strobl on Wolfgangsee in Austria. The participants, a healthy mixture of senior academics, postdocs, and PhD researchers, came from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Turkey, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. The organisers and members of this seminar are indebted to the Austrian Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung, Abteilung Erwachsenenbildung (Federal Ministry for Education, Science and Research, Adult Education Section) for the generous provision of accommodation and facilities at its residential conference centre in Strobl together with the centre’s hospitable domestic staff. We are also indebted to Gerhard Bisovsky for his continuing mediation with our Austrian partners on ESREA’s behalf. Furthermore, we would also like to thank Stefan Vater (Association of Austrian Adult Education Centres, VÖV) and Verena Springer (bifeb) for their perfect organisational support of the seminar.
Details
- Pages
- VIII, 164
- Publication Year
- 2025
- ISBN (PDF)
- 9783631933619
- ISBN (ePUB)
- 9783631933626
- ISBN (Hardcover)
- 9783631915660
- DOI
- 10.3726/b22670
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 2025 (May)
- Keywords
- History of Adult Education Popularization of Science History of Education Social Movements
- Published
- Berlin, Bruxelles, Chennai, Lausanne, New York, Oxford, 2025. viii, 164 pp., 1 fig. col., 2 tables.
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