This website was created to present the outcomes of a PhD research project that took place between October 2018 and October 2023, and was led by Dorian Cavé. The research question that drove this project was: "How may online networks enable radical collective change through social learning?" This project was conducted using a participatory Action Research approach, and took place in two different online communities.
To read a more detailed introduction about this project, see the project introduction page.
You may also want to watch the 40-minute video below, which is a recording of a presentation given on Dec.29, 2023, at the 37th Chaos Communication Congress in Hamburg, Germany. It contains a summary of some of the key points of this research.
About this website
The doctoral thesis that was written during this research was published in December 2023 by the University of Lancaster, and the University of Cumbria (UK). This website aims to make more accessible the insights that emerged from this project, particularly to people who want to change the world. It works like a portal, helping the reader navigate the different types of content and ideas that were generated, and which are spread around different spaces and in different forms (text, video, blogs, etc.). In other words: no one in their right minds (except perhaps hardcore academics) should have to read a 577-page-long doctoral thesis in order to benefit from this research! Each page on this website has windows opening onto various resources. Next to each hypertext link, an icon shows the kind of resource that is being linked to:
- Long read
- Medium-long read
- Short insights
- Video
- A piece on the Conscious Learning Blog
- External resource not created in this project
How to navigate this mess
This website offers you three main entry points into this (messy) work:
- "Who are you?" presents a selection of content summaries the research that are tailored to different reader profiles.
-
"Read the thesis" leads you straight into the various chapters of the thesis, guided by helpful summaries (shorter and longer) of the juiciest stuff - so you don't need to spend hours going through the whole thing.
- "Keywords" is a section that categorises the content of this website based on specific keywords.
So make your choice, and jump in!
If you'd like to know a bit more about what you're getting into, read the introduction page.