Jeg strikker, derfor er jeg! Læring og identitet i uformelle læringsrum

I knit, therefore I am!

Learning and identity in informal space has two main purposes. The first purpose being an investigation of how new value attributions and thinking can generate novel and usable knowledge to the field of craftsmanship, and the second purpose being a display of a different and overlooked philosophical and cultural potential in a reflexive mode of expression, which is able to reflect the normative comprehension of craftsmanship.

The dissertation focuses on learning and identity in informal spaces of learning and how it is possible to relate such a learning perspective to crafts training in educational establishments. The empirical foundation of this dissertation is ‘craftivism’. In the dissertation activists from the Nordic countries have been interviewed about what they do when they put up their textile graffiti on lamp posts and house walls. Three research problems are presented: 1) What stories do people who work as crafts activists, tell about ways of relating and methods of action when they make crafts? 2) What do these stories tell about learning and identity? 3) How may the research results influence training and education in craftsmanship? These questions are being asked in order to acquire new knowledge in two aspects; first aspect being knowledge about crafts in relation to techniques, tradition and the objects in crafts, and the second aspect being knowledge about learning and identity in informal spaces of learning. The dissertations theoretical foundation is post structural and sociocultural combined with hermeneutical-inspired qualitative interviews.

The author’s position and pre-understanding is subject to discussion in relation to the informant; the performing activist, as the background for both of them is craftsmanship. Starting from cultural studies, it is possible to see the activist subject’s conditions of possibilities in the culture, as the activism of the sub-cultural phenomenon’s craft lights up through a performing approach to the individual’s actions. First the research material has been analysed for events of textile graffiti and possible themes in the events, after which the results have been summarised. Next the research material has been analysed for events about learning and identity due to the author’s wish of comprehending the background of and motivational force in activism. The analysis is divided in main perspectives with different dimensions.

The results of the analysis show the activist subject’s construction of an individual who actively takes part in a community by e.g. creating joy, changing the world’s perception of sustainability or by feminizing the public space. By taking crafts over the borders (and away from the class room) crafts become contextualized in a novel fashion thus obtaining an independent status. In this fashion the dissertation writes itself into a new method of comprehending and performing traditional craftsmanship techniques.