Guide for aesthetic and embodied learning for democracy in the field of adult, professional and organisational learning

This Guide presents a conceptual and pedagogical framework for embedding Aesthetic and Embodied Learning for Democracy (AELD) within adult, professional and organisational learning (APOL) contexts. Grounded in the AECED project’s understanding of democracy-as-becoming, it reframes democratic learning as an ongoing relational and ethical process unfolding through facilitation, organisational cultures, and professional interactions. The Guide elaborates democratic values (freedom, equality/equity, responsiveness), democratic principles (power-sharing, transforming dialogue, holistic learning, relational well-being), and the dimensions of commoning (social togetherness, political self-governance, care economy), while foregrounding responsive pedagogy and the acceptive gaze. Designed for facilitators, consultants, trainers and organisational change-makers, it supports the cultivation of democratic sensibility through reflective, aesthetic and embodied approaches that attend to power, consent, relational well-being and ethical judgement in complex institutional settings.