Study circle

When they emerged in the early twentieth century they were based on a democratic approach to self-education and were often linked to social movements concerned with temperance or working class emancipation.

Study circles may be sponsored or assisted by government or community officials and have specific outcome goals such as generating ideas or suggesting courses of action; or they may be entirely independent and self-sufficient, existing simply for the pleasure of increasing the knowledge of their members.

[3] In the early 19th century, Danish Lutheran pastor N. F. S. Grundtvig envisioned folk high schools that rapidly spread through Scandinavia and Central Europe.

[6] Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will"), a Russian revolutionary populist organisation, made extensive use of study circles in the 1870s.

[10] Some of the same ideas and concepts of community study circles can be applied to internal issues such as diversity and race relations.

[11] Study circles have been used extensively in Australia for some years to engage citizens in issues as diverse as reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians,[12][13] and tackling environmental disasters like blue-green algae in the nation's river systems.