How the Men's Shed idea travels to Scandinavia
- Authors: Ahl, Helene , Hedegaard, Joel , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2017
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 57, no. 3 (2017), p. 316-333
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- Description: Australia has around 1,000 Men’s Sheds – informal community- based workshops offering men beyond paid work somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to. They have proven to be of great benefit for older men's learning, health and wellbeing, social integration, and for developing a positive male identity focusing on community responsibility and care. A Men’s Shed is typically self- organized and 'bottom-up', which is also a key success factor, since it provides participants with a sense of ownership and empowerment. Men's Sheds are now spreading rapidly internationally, but the uptake of the idea varies with the local and national context, and so too may the consequences. Our paper describes how the Men's Shed travelled to Denmark, a country with considerably more 'social engineering' than in Australia, where Sheds were opened in 2015, via a 'top-down' initiative sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Health. Using data from the study of the web pages of the Danish 'Shed' organizations, from interviews with the central organizer, and from visits and interviews with participants and local organizers at two Danish Men's sheds, we describe how the idea of the Men's Shed on the Australian model was interpreted and translated at central and local levels. Preliminary data indicate that similar positive benefits as exist in Australia may result, provided that local ownership is emphasized.
Why some homogeneous adult learning groups may be nessesary for encouraging diversity : a theory of conditional social equality
- Authors: Ahl, Helene , Hedegaard, Joel , Golding, Barry
- Date: 2023
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Australian Journal of Adult Learning Vol. 63, no. 2 (2023), p. 119-139
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- Description: This paper proposes a new theory of Conditional Social Equality (CSE) which in some ways challenges the theory of cumulative advantage/ disadvantage (CAD), which postulates that inequalities and social divisions necessarily increase over time. Using evidence from informal learning groups in Men’s Sheds in three countries, we conclude that some social divisions between homosocial groups, in this case groups of older men, may actually decrease – but only under certain conditions. Male-gendered learning groups that were relatively homogeneous by age helped erase class divisions and softened gender stereotypes. Our theory of conditional social equality (CSE) predicts the following: i) in-group homogeneity can enable the acceptance of some aspects of heterogeneity, ii) some other aspects of in-group heterogeneity may not be tolerated, thus maintaining in-group cohesion, and iii), in-group homogeneity and boundary setting towards out-groups may be prerequisites for the acceptance of (some) aspects of in-group heterogeneity. All of this has important implications for adult learning in both heterogeneous and homogenous groups. © 2023, Adult Learning Australia. All rights reserved.
Men's sheds (Mænds Modesteder) in Denmark
- Authors: Hedegaard, Joel , Golding, Barry , Nielson, Mie
- Date: 2021
- Type: Text , Book chapter
- Relation: Shoulder to shoulder : broadening the men's shed movement Chapter 8 p. 293-308
- Full Text: false
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