Hello! This blog reports the state of the art of the LOLA Theoretical Background.
It will be constantly updated. More than only report what have been done until now, this blog intends to be a platform for collaboration between all those interested in LOLA, particularly in the CCN network and LOLA task group.

The objective of this blog is:

_ starting from the FIRST LOLA paper - presented at SCORE conference;
_ arrive to the LOLA book.

To start-up this process you can find below 9 posts, containing what have been written until now (*). You can access these posts to read them and leave a comment. (after each post there is the link “LEAVE A REPLY” - you can contribute by clicking on that).
Your comment will be carefully considered and authorship will be recognized.

Please note that contributions are particularly needed to 2.3 LOLA in pedagogical theories.

—————————————-
STRUCTURE

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
1.2 Tools
1.3 Phases
2 STRATEGY
2.1 Social innovation for sustainability
2.2 Collecting cases: qualitative criteria
2.3 LOLA in pedagogical theories
2.4 LOLA and ICT
3. CONCLUSION: why LOLA?
(*) Paper presented to SCORE conference (http://www.score-network.org/)

The Looking for Likely Alternatives (LOLA) project is a pedagogical tool for teachers and students, which assists them in the process of identifying, evaluating and documenting cases of social innovation for sustainable lifestyles.

The LOLA project’s goal is to help teachers and their class to discover, approach and give visibility to new sustainable lifestyles in their surroundings. (more…)

The Consumer Citizenship Network launched the LOLA project in 2005.

The CONSUMER CITIZENSHIP NETWORK - coordinated at Hedmark University College, Norway – is an interdisciplinary network of educators, researchers and civil-society organisations, (including UNESCO, UNEP and Consumers International) who recognize the pressing need for constructive action by individuals in order to achieve sustainable consumption and global solidarity [1]. The CONSUMER CITIZENSHIP NETWORK brings together expertise in the fields of citizenship, environmental and consumer education to further develop research and good practice for teaching and accessing consumer citizenship education. The Network consists (more…)

Specific tools were designed to reach these goals. The main toolkit was called LOLA Teaching Pack, which contains:

1. Student Reporter Book: supports the collection of cases by the students which consists in an easy to construct booklet supporting the kids in making the interviews, taking pictures and where they are invited to write down and draw all their observations; (more…)
    

The first phase of LOLA was the pilot project (2005-06) as a follow up of the EMUDE research that involved the SEP actors (see section 1.3 Background). It was then organized in two parts: first generating the contents of the Teaching Pack in order to organize a method for finding and disseminating more sustainable lifestyle solutions, and a second phase involving four teachers training schools in the process of collecting these cases of social innovation, documenting the didactic process and maintaining an open discussion on the experience amongst the CONSUMER CITIZENSHIP NETWORK members.

(more…)

A presentation of the basis and potential of the LOLA project can be done considering the following questions:

1.1. what are the basis for LOLA in the theories of social innovation for sustainability?
1.2. what are the basis for LOLA in pedagogical theories?
1.3. what is the importance and role of ICT in LOLA?

LOLA project intends to contribute through education and awareness to a change in the currently dominant models of living, production and consumption, in particular giving visibility to new possibilities, through the examples of groups living their everyday life in a more sustainable way: (more…)

As we have learned, LOLA project is based on a process of collecting case studies. Which kind of cases studies does LOLA encourage students to look for?

This question indicates the qualitative criteria that form the basis of LOLA didactics and can be described as follows:

1. innovative solutions;
2. bottom-up organizations;
3. socially positive;
4. environmentally friendly. (more…)

All the qualitative criteria enunciated in the previous section, are the filters to be used by students when scouting their surroundings looking for promising solutions in terms of sustainability. We assume that teachers need to have an initial knowledge about these filters, but at the same time, they are themselves learning through the cases collected by their students. This initial knowledge can be “achieved” using the LOLA supporting material (in the Teaching Pack).
(more…)

At the moment, LOLA project is hosted by SEP (Sustainable Everyday Project) on which a Web Platform is being built, targeted to describe the project domain and activities, but also as a repository through which is possible to download LOLA docs, tools, as well as a platform that enable interactions between participants. LOLA cases are also, progressively, being uploaded and taking part of the overall SEP catalogue of cases, and this potentially also enables interactions between “creative communities” themselves. (more…)