Sustainability Transition in the Moroccan Agrarian Regime: Transformative Learning and the Coalition of Discourses

Abstract

Soulaliyine Social Movement in Morocco, as any social movement, could function as a means of social change. This social change happens as a result of empowering oppressed people. Empowerment, contesting hegemony, social change mechanisms, and social movement dynamics are the focal points of the majority of the existing studies. This study takes a different direction, using in-depth interviews with two activists and based on their real life and pedagogical experiences. it aims to establish how social tension over collective land led activists to adjust their thinking and actions as well as shed light on how notions of sustainability penetrated their discourse. By using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning theory as a lens for analysis, the examination of activists’ experiences and narratives showed that activists’ perceptions and frames of references changed as a result of participating in Soulaliyine Social Movement, and this change in their personalities is irreversible. This study also shows that openness to sustainability discourse helped those activists legitimize their demands.