Envisioning the Classroom as a Social Movement Organization

This article describes the impact of an innovative higher education initiative called the Learning City Classroom, a project based on the presupposition that the classroom can raise awareness, foster solidarity and construct a collective identity consistent with being part of the sustainability movement. The Learning City Classroom is portrayed as an organizing, designing and implementation entity and as having all the qualities of an emerging social movement organization. The Learning City acts as a social movement organization by identifying shared objectives as critical to the sustainability movement. The outcome of this research shows not only that the university can support the sustainability social movement in concrete and tangible ways, but also, that it can do this in ways that are empowering for grassroots community groups as well as for students. (Contains 2 tables and 3 notes.)