'All the different routes we walk and the knowledge they can’t take away from us.’

Participation, transformation, and revolution in Belarus 2020

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.5955

Keywords:

Belarus 2020, biographical narrative, biographical resources and biographicity, transgression and agency

Abstract

The falsification of the results of the 2020 presidential election in Belarus produced a movement of peaceful civil disobedience and resistance. Civil activism furthered radical change embracing broad democratic participation and created new political subjects. Biographical interviews conducted with Aliaksandra, a young Belarusian adult, look at the learning situation of the individual and open a space in which the search for individual meaning-making in times of biographical transition can be heard. The interviews showcase interactions in time and space between an individual and her wider out-of-frame interactions, and on the effects of social and political conflict and crisis on her biographical narrative. The concept of ‘biographicity’ is employed to describe the dynamics of ongoing biographical learning, and Raymond Williams’ understanding of the processes of social transformation provides the theoretical backdrop of the transformation of lived lives in this paper.

Author Biography

Rob Evans, (formerly) Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg, Germany

Rob Evans, EdD, born in London, studied Russian and History at Leeds and Tübingen. After working in adult, further and higher education at universities in Italy, Germany and Egypt and as a freelance adult and management trainer for many years, he taught Academic English Writing at the University of Magdeburg, Germany until 2019. His main research interests include biography research methods, the language of narrative, conversation analysis and discourses of learning. Publications include chapters, journal articles, books and edited books.

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Published

2025-12-22

How to Cite

Evans, R. (2025). ’All the different routes we walk and the knowledge they can’t take away from us.’: Participation, transformation, and revolution in Belarus 2020. European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.3384/rela.2000-7426.5955

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Open Paper