Large-group capacitation is an adult education and social psychology concept associated with the Brazilian sociologist Clodomir Santos de Morais, and grounded in the "activity"Meaning, among others, a real activity (vs. mere simulation exercise); an experiential learning activity; a Cultural-Historical Activity Theory-based activity. on de Morais' use of Activity Theory. of the individual and the social psychology of the large group.de Morais Chapter 3 in Labra, Iván, 1992, 3.2. p. 82: Psicología social de grandes grupos (in Spanish); Chapter 2; : Social Psychology of the Large Group. When applied to the context of the Organization Workshop (OW), which, historically, has been used mainly for the purpose of job creation and income generation, it is known as Metodología da Capacitação Massiva (MCM) in Portuguese, Método de Capacitación Masiva (MCM) (online): "Annex: A methodological path". Also (book): Sobrado & Rojas, 2006 p. 185ss EUNA, Costa Rica, and ; . in Spanish and as Large-Group Capacitation Method (LGCM) in English.
Coinage The English term capacitation is a translation of the terms (Portuguese) and capacitación (Spanish).As the method originated in Latin America see: Organization Workshop.The Spanish section of the tri-lingual "Adult Education Glossary" explains that the term (Spanish) is usually followed by the adjectives vocational or technical, ie preparation for qualified employment () (p. 79).NB: the English verb to capacitate means to make capable; to enable – from the Latin capax.: "Capacitation". Capacitation marks the generic difference between transitiveThat is, subject-to-subject transmission of knowledge, skills and communication(s). Banking education (Freire) "in which the teacher issues communiques and makes deposits which the students patiently receive, memorize, and repeat" would be an example of such subject-to-subject transitive mode, in the field of education. and intransitiveThat is, non-transitive, object-to-subject 'objective activity', i.e. where the object teaches or how adults learn, ie autonomously – see: Andragogy and "Andragogy forms the basis of the process". modes of learning and communicatinge.g. The "Concise Oxford Dictionary" 2004, OUP p. 110 translates capacitación (Spanish) to training. Conversely, the Spanish translation of training (English) is not capacitación, but instead, entrenamiento or adiestriamiento. Similarly, the portuguese translation of training is entrenamento or adestramento. implicit in de Morais' aphorism .de Morais in: p. 6 (nb. Portuguese original): "Professional training [models] generally transfer elements of theory well before practical elements are produced. The latter aborts the capacitation process: the trainee learns, but is not capacitated: se aprende, porém não se capacita". (nb. Spanish original) "To prioritize elements of theory before introducing elements of practice, means that the capacitation process of those involved in the setting the "Organization Workshop Enterprise" is being frustrated: they learn but are not capacitated: se aprende, pero no se capacita". Capacitation is reminiscent of the adult education concept of conscientization – from the Portuguese conscientização, popularized by Brazilian theorist and activist Paulo Freire.: "A final moment with Paulo Freire – 1997". While Freire's work was translated into English as early as 1970,. See also: Pedagogy of the Oppressed de Morais' Organization Workshop (OW) – and, hence, moraisean large-group capacitation (LGC) – did not come to the attention of the English-speaking public until the mid-80s, when the Chilean Social Psychologists I. & I. Labra moved to Zimbabwe and transferred the method to the (southern) African context. Ch 12: "Hard Learning in Zimbabwe". Latino texts were initially translated on an 'ad hoc' basis, including the 'dictionary' translation of capacitación (Spanish) as training (English).'Training' also happened to coincide with potential sponsors' Development glossaries, e.g. the ILO's 1980s Persons with Lower Levels of Literacy (LLLs) training modules.'Dictionary' translations of capacitação (Portuguese) and capacitación (Spanish) as "training", can occasionally be found in official documents, as, e.g., in , which is a Government translation of Vera Nacif's original Spanish text . Cherrett's 1992 first ever translation into English of de Morais' Apuntes de Teoría de la Organización,transl: "Notes on a Theory of Organization" (ETC, Newcastle, UK) also, was still referred to as a "Training" Manual. It was not until the ALFA International ConferenceALFA – America Latina Formación Academica in Manchester, UK, in 1998, attended by de Morais and academics from four European and four Latin American Universities,Manchester UK, Wageningen, Netherlands, Basque University Spain, Pisa Italy, Chapingo Mexico, Central University Venezuela, National University and Public University of Costa Rica. (see: ) that a consensus was reached on the dedicated terms Capacitation and Large Group Capacitation (LGC). p. 10
Capacitation in community health, adult education and international development Capacitation (outside the field of biology) has been used previously, in English, mainly to emphasize educational content which differs from and/or transcends the basic meaning of the English one-size-fits-all training.Etymology of Training quote : "from the 14th Century Old French trahiner – to drag". (NB: which would be a clear indication of its transitive pedigree of the English term). In some sectors of Community health, "capacitation" is said to be synonymous with empowering training. Capacitation has also historically been used in the area of adult education, starting with Paulo Freire, who, in the seventies, uses the term "Technical Proficiency Capacitation" to refer to an adult learning activity which can "never be reduced to the level of mere training". In the eighties, Capacitation is defined, by the ILO, as: "availability of opportunities for people to build up their capacities to move from the status of object and passive victims of social processes to the status of subjects guided by self-consciousness and active agents of change". p. 23: "Capacitation". The UNRISD (Geneva) had started (in the seventies) to promote the term capacitation as a "problem-solving, educational" alternative to the then prevalent but mainly pragmatic 'social amelioration' approaches to International development. page 39: "Capacitation of national societies". (NB: is a synonym for ('taking charge') – in this case, of one's own destiny). Jan Nederveen PieterseSee comparative table – (between "Growth-led" and "Equity-led" Development – p. 354 in . contrasts "capacitation" or human development, as proposed by alternative or autonomous (aka self-development) theorists – (such as e.g. Korten, 1990; Max-Neef, 1991; Rahman, 1993 and Carmen, 1996), – with "development-as -economic growth" theorists for whom, according to Pieterse, capital accumulation is the ultimate Development objective. By the mid-nineties, any mention of capacitation had virtually disappeared from the International Development scene, to be replaced by the World-Bank-sponsored Capacity Building.: "No summit goes by without ritual calls for capacity building programmes": "Much of southern development practitioners' capacity enhancing practice is in the transitive vein of providing training courses for on one or another identified "capacity need".International Agencies, prominently the World Bank, as from the nineties, opted for "Capacity Building", influenced, partly, as suggests, by Amartya Sen's then up-and-coming "Capability approach" to International Development.(Capacity) "Building": "To build" means "to form by combining materials or parts". According to . "Capacitation", – on the other hand -, "always involves working with the whole – (i.e. the entire process/activity at the same time) – and not with (a) small part(s) of the system". Although de Morais worked for many years with a range of UN and International Agencies, his "Activity"-basedrefer, e.g., ; (n.2). pedagogy never became common currency there, possibly, as Sobrado suggests, because of, among others, its then presumed "Evil Empire" pedigree.re: Sobrado in
Moraisean large-group capacitation (LGC): overview