Militant Research for Peace Education. The Case of Grupa Granica on the Polish-Belarusian Border

ABSTRACT

Peace education prepares people to deal peacefully with conflicts of various scales. The authors want to enrich this education by paying attention to situations when international tension increases, and it is still possible to defuse it. Social movements sometimes highlight the hidden conflicts in society. They provoke the authorities to act and sometimes even force them to reveal their intentions. In this article, the authors look at the use of ‘intervention’ so-called militant research in the face of growing international conflicts and utilise the example of the humanitarian crisis for exiled people on the Polish-Belarusian border that has taken place since the summer of 2021. The possibility of using militant research is considered an inspiration to restore and preserve peace on the basis of the activism of ‘Grupa Granica’ [Border Group] in Poland. The case selection is based on the criteria adopted from the literature on militant research.

KEYWORDS:

• Militant research
• peace education
• social movements
• humanitarian crisis
• knowledge production
• human rights

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Magdalena Prusinowska and Krystian Szadkowski for their valuable contributions to our discussions on militant research. Their insightful perspectives have greatly enhanced the overall quality of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. There are, of course, examples that deviate from this classic understanding of MR. For example, Sam Halvorsen (2015) describes research carried out at the junction of the social movement (Occupy London) and the university (University College London) as the institution that largely supported this process. According to the researcher, such coexistence is possible when the person acts as an academic researcher and activist. Of course, this connection is not without its problems. Halvorsen refers to conflicts between institutional actors and militant researchers who are part of the activist milieu. Then, the different understanding of research ethics by research ethics committees and militant researchers may be the problem. Tensions between institutions, social movements, and the individuals involved are inevitable and require constant reflection. Halvorsen, therefore, postulates that combat research should be ‘vigilant’ and self-critical, no matter what form it takes.

2. The differentiation of types of adult education proposed by Malewski (2010) inspired us to describe three approaches to PE. Malewski distinguishes technological, humanistic, and critical adult education, which differ in the adopted assumptions and implementation (cf. Solarczyk-Szwec 2009).

3. This concept alludes to the organization of Poland’s WWII anti-Nazi resistance (The Polish Underground State, 1939–1945), ‘which at its peak boasted over 300,000 sworn-in members, an elaborate network of institutions was set up in occupied Poland […] included clandestine versions of prewar political parties and a shadow government administration (Delegatura) headed by a representative of the legal Polish government-in-exile. […] The Underground State was funded by the government-in-exile, from London’ (Gross 2006, 6–7).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Piotr Kowzan

Piotr Kowzan is an assistant professor at the Department of Didactics and Education of Adults, at the Institute of Pedagogy, University of Gdansk. His research interests centre on education of adults and consist of pedagogy of debt, social movement learning and childre’ participation in protests.

Przemysław Szczygieł

Przemysław Szczygieł is an assistant professor at the Faculty of Educational Studies at Ateneum-University, Gdańsk, Poland. His research interests center on rebellion and its educational dimensions, social movement learning. He uses a biographical approach that recognizes the role of the individual experiences of adults.