1. Introduction

Learning circles intend to create a framework that allows circle participants to develop new knowledge and opportunities for action in relation to actual challenges and issues through a co-creation learning process.

The concept of learning circles as a co-creation and participant-led working method with a bottom-up approach is not new in the Scandinavian and wider Nordic context. However, this method has become more topical in recent years due to the competencies required by our increasingly complex social and working lives including issues such as active citizenship, social cohesion, skills development and cooperation across professions in the workplace. At present, this circle approach is the subject of further enhancement and revitalisation in a number of contexts with different aims, and in a number of different settings in both public and private sector workplaces, as well as wider civil society. Common to all these initiatives is the use of reciprocal learning through dialogue and the exchange of experiences in combination with theoretical and professional input from the circle’s facilitator or external “guests”.

Participants may be local residents, interest groups, voluntary organisations, or employees in businesses, public sector workplaces, municipalities and regions drawn from a range of professions, for instance.

This method has been developed in relation to adult target audiences of all ages and can also be used by young people. It is essential that participants have a common task that they either want to work together to better resolve or they share an interest in learning more about, and that decisive significance is attributed to the participants’ own experiences.

This handbook contains guidance and inspiration on how to work with the circle approach. It presents thoughts and reflections that participants and facilitators may wish to consult when initiating and implementing learning circles in their own contexts. This handbook has been written to inspire further development and work on co-creation participant engagement and co-creation learning processes.

The Nordic Network for Adult Learning (NVL) has provided support for the Nordic development of the circle working method via a range of networks, including its network for entrepreneurship, “entrepreneurial learning and innovation”, which conducted a Nordic pilot project titled “Transformative Learning Circles”,

https://nvl.org/Portals/0/DigArticle/15329/NVL_report_learning_circles_300118.pdf

as well as the ongoing “inclusion and leadership” circle. The results of these initiatives indicate that thematic circle work across the Nordic countries provides a special opportunity to share and further define one’s own practice. Thoughts are put into perspective and further nuanced through joint Nordic themes. Through the exchange of experiences, this organic and flexible working method develops new knowledge that can be linked to new opportunities for action in one’s own practice.

This working method is based on the Nordic tradition of flat social structures which results in proximity between those in power and co-creators, as well as cooperation through dialogue and the exchange of experiences. The intention behind this handbook is to contribute to the further development and definition of this method.