Recovering memories of people, crafts and communities : challenging the colonization of a lost life-world

Abstract

This paper reports on research concerning a specific form of colonization – colonization by globalised industrial mass production. This has replaced a life-world (lebenswelt)- characterized by crafts and languages that have become or are increasingly becoming extinct species. Though specific to a locality in Spain, this process of colonization has wider resonance for all those contexts worldwide witnessing the loss of crafts and their related languages through the processes of hegemonic globalisation. People are losing the sense of belonging to a symbolic and geographical territory. Systematic research for recovering this can be considered a generator of experiences and learning. These experiences are related toidentity as an element which enables people to understand how individuals establish relationships amongst themselves and with the environment. This identityis always linked to the way through which people understand the territory. At the same time,it is a powerful element for transforming it. An important part of this identity relates to the traditional production system and, within that, the notion of crafts and craftsmen. This is a work in process. The first outcomes of the research are related to some descriptive categories such as: the crafts associated with the River; the use of the River to transport goods and people; the family ties associated to craft; the cosmopolitanism of the people and the changes which this generates; the role of women; and the River as a magical and mysterious place. My educational goal is to use this research to produce adult education materials based on community history, materials that can help communities articulate their identity, as opposed tomaterials taking anabstract skills-based learning approach.