Editing Study circle (section)

==History and evolution==
In the early 19th century, [[Denmark|Danish]] [[Lutheran]] pastor [[N. F. S. Grundtvig]] envisioned [[folk high school]]s that rapidly spread through [[Scandinavia]] and [[Central Europe]].<ref name="Steele">{{cite journal |last=Steele |first=Tom |date=September 2010 |title=Enlightened publics: popular education movements in Europe, their legacy and promise |journal=Studies in the Education of Adults |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=107–123 |doi=10.1080/02660830.2010.11661592|s2cid=141417803 }}</ref> Forms of [[informal education]] such as folk high schools and popular lectures (such as [[Chautauqua]]) helped inspire the development of study circles in [[Sweden]] in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a part of the activities in popular movements, such as the temperance and the workers' movements.<ref name="Steele"/><ref name="Uddman">{{cite book |last=Uddman |first=Rolf |date=1989 |chapter=Study circles in Sweden |editor-last=Titmus |editor-first=Colin J. |title=Lifelong education for adults: an international handbook |series=Advances in education |location=Oxford; New York |publisher=[[Pergamon Press]] |pages=242–244 |isbn=0080308511 |oclc=18981481 |doi=10.1016/B978-0-08-030851-7.50077-1 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4eLBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA242}}</ref> [[Oscar Olsson]] was a prominent Swedish proponent of study circles.<ref name="Uddman"/> Since these movements' participants were working class or small farmers the study circles were important in relation to these classes' growing political power in the early 20th century.<ref name="Steele"/> The issues that were studied were already from the early period broad—they could be as well political and social issues as literature or even school topics.<ref name="Larsson & Nordvall"/>

In Sweden today study circles are a mass phenomenon and have broad national support.<ref name="Larsson & Nordvall"/>{{rp|8}} Around 300,000 study circles have been reported each year since the 1970s.<ref name="Larsson & Nordvall"/>{{rp|18}} National educational associations receive annual [[subsidy|subsidies]] from the [[Central government|national government]] and work with folk high schools (folkhögskolor), [[university]] short courses, [[Distance education|correspondence study]] and [[Distance education|distance learning]], allowing [[citizen]]s to understand and participate more fully in their communities and nation.<ref name="Larsson & Nordvall"/>{{rp|25–34}} The Swedish study circle model was successfully transplanted into American culture, most notably in the [[National Issues Forums]] (sponsored by the Domestic Policy Association in Dayton, Ohio) and the [[International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers|Bricklayers and Allied Craftsmen]]'s Study Circle Program which began in 1986.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Oliver |first=Leonard P. |date=March 1995 |title=Is the United States ready for a study circle movement? |journal=[[Adult Learning]] |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=14–19 |doi=10.1177/104515959500600410 |s2cid=151061510 }}</ref>

[[Narodnaya Volya]] ("People's Will"), a Russian revolutionary populist organisation, made extensive use of study circles in the 1870s.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hillyar |first1=Anna |last2=McDermid |first2=Jane |date=2000 |title=Revolutionary women in Russia, 1870–1917: a study in collective biography |location=Manchester |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |pages=43, 56 |isbn=0719048370 |oclc=43323628 }}</ref> The concept was taken up by the [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] [[Social Democrat]] group [[Mesame Dasi]] ("Third Group") in the 1890s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Suny |first=Ronald Grigor |date=1994 |title=The making of the Georgian nation |edition=2nd |location=Bloomington |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=riW0kKzat2sC&pg=PA160 160] |isbn=0253355796 |oclc=29908699}}</ref> A youthful [[Joseph Stalin]] was involved in leading some of these.<ref>{{cite book |last=Knight |first=Amy W. |date=1993 |title=Beria: Stalin's first lieutenant |location=Princeton, NJ |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |pages=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HG-FWbqeG1AC&pg=PA59 59–60] |isbn=0691032572 |oclc=27896869}}</ref>

Study circles have been employed as a change process and development activity within [[corporation]]s.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Salt |first1=Ben |last2=Cervero |first2=Ronald M. |last3=Herod |first3=Andrew |date=November 2000 |title=Workers' education and neoliberal globalization: an adequate response to transnational corporations? |journal=[[Adult Education Quarterly]] |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=9–31 |doi=10.1177/07417130022087099|s2cid=154696700 }}</ref> Some of the same ideas and concepts of community study circles can be applied to internal issues such as [[Multiculturalism|diversity]] and [[race relations]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilcox |first1=Deborah A. |last2=McCray |first2=Jacquelyn Y. |date=Winter 2005 |title=Multicultural organization competence through deliberative dialogue |journal=[[Organization Development Journal]] |volume=23 |issue=4 |pages=77–85 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/12ad2b9d299ea955cf3f4d2c001aaa1d}}</ref>

Study circles have been used extensively in Australia for some years to engage citizens in issues as diverse as reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boughton |first1=Bob |last2=Durnan |first2=Deborah |date=1993 |title=Australians for reconciliation study circle kit |location=Canberra |publisher=[[Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation]] |isbn=9780644325585 |oclc=221533963}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Gunstone |first=Andrew |date=2016 |chapter=The Australian reconciliation process: a case study of community education |editor1-last=Peterson |editor1-first=Andrew |editor2-last=Hattam |editor2-first=Robert |editor3-last=Zembylas |editor3-first=Michalinos |editor4-last=Arthur |editor4-first=James |title=The Palgrave international handbook of education for citizenship and social justice |location=London; New York |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] |pages=187–204 |isbn=9781137515063 |oclc=948561358 |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-51507-0_9}}</ref> and tackling environmental disasters like blue-green algae in the nation's river systems.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chorus |first1=Ingrid |last2=Bartram |first2=Jamie |date=1999 |chapter=Awareness raising, communication and public participation |title=Toxic cyanobacteria in water: a guide to their public health consequences, monitoring, and management |location=London; New York |publisher=E & FN Spon |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1UxZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 232] |isbn=0419239308 |oclc=40395794}}</ref> Around 2010, the Australian Study Circles Network was developed as a central resource for study circle practitioners in Australia.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brennan |first1=Mary |last2=Brophy |first2=Mark |date=July 2010 |title=Study circles and the Dialogue to Change Program |journal=Australian Journal of Adult Learning |volume=50 |issue=2 |pages=411–418 |url=http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ952241.pdf}}</ref>