Community-based education has a long history within community development narratives. These histories have included the contributions of community-based learning to movements for colonial freedom in Africa, India and elsewhere in the Global South, just as they have included contributions to community development narratives in Britain and elsewhere, in the Global North. These interconnections between community-based learning and community development predate even the seminal contributions of the Brazilian popular educator, Paulo Freire, focusing on enabling communities to understand the underlying causes of their problems, developing critical consciousness as the basis for promoting collective action for social change (Freire, 1972). The relevance for community development theory and practice has been set out explicitly in key texts such as Community Development: A Critical Approach (Ledwith, 2005) and Participatory Practice (Ledwith and Springett, 2010).

More recent discussions of the contested notion of popular education highlight these interconnections still further, going on to distinguish popular education from ‘merely populist’ approaches, in that it is ‘rooted in the real interests and struggles of ordinary people, overtly political and critical of the status quo (and) committed to progressive change’ (Crowther et al, 2005: 2). It forges a direct link between education and social action. Far from being populist, in fact, it has been argued that popular education has actually been taking off in direct response to the growth of far right populism and increasing authoritarianism in recent years.

This chapter starts from the potential contributions that popular education can make, building on the legacies – and lessons – from the past; enabling communities to respond more effectively to the challenges that they face in the contemporary context; developing collective strategies for social justice and community solidarity; and promoting the politics of hope rather than exacerbating the politics of hate. These are ambitious aims, and not without their own inherent tensions; definitions of popular education have been and continue to be contested, and so have definitions of populism, in their turn.

Having explored these questions in theory, the chapter moves on to consider ways in which popular educators have been engaging with communities to address contemporary challenges, exploring the underlying causes of the growth of far right populism, as well as developing alternative strategies in response.