Production was a central orientation in Robin’s practice, and 'Formacion' is a significant variant of this. He was involved in formacion throughout his life - earlier, educating new leadership cadres in post-colonial states, throughout at IDS, in his last decade with **Synergia**, **Schumacher College** & **the Coop University**. But it's not a practice he addressed much on the page. This chapter makes an attempt at that.
In the practice of formacion, the main thing being produced is **scope**. Robin *did* write about that - as **'the problem of scale'** and we'll bring the discussion into a focus on that work. ---
# Formacion I'm addressing 'formacion' in the following way, as . . - Practices of *skilful production* . . - of formations of **radical activist practice**, which . . - have the capability to produce working ‘chunks’ of **forces of production (FoPs)**, which . . - prefigure and build the **living economy**
Making the landscape of **material means of subsistence and wellbeing** - the Living Economy - can be seen as 'the curriculum' of formacion. Here I'm concerned with the 'hidden curriculum' - how the making is made. That is, I'm concerned with the FoP of *formacion*, as distinct from the FoP of the living economy. We could say this was 'second order'. Or we could say it was *primary*. ---
The terms 'radical' and 'prefiguring' appear here. I address these by talking about relations of production (RoP). **FoP** and **RoP** are the basic terms of analysis here. Altered RoPs are at the heart of this view of formacion, and of making the Living Economy. ---
# This chapter I'll develop this discussion in three areas . . - The notion of activist literacy in cultural production Activist literacy - Cultural production - The weaving of formations of practice - 'The dance of knowing' - The problem of scale? The production of scope! Scale, scope And some concluding comments. End ---
Next: Activist literacy - Cultural production ---