Includes bibliographical references (p. 260-273).This thesis aims to document and theorise processes of learning and forms of pedagogy and knowledge in the trade union organisational context. It seeks to establish how these vary across sites within the union and in the context of broader historical changes in trade unions' social and political role. The thesis also aims to contribute to the development of a conceptual approach that will allow processes and forms of learning, pedagogy and knowledge in informal or non-formal, collective, social-action contexts such as the trade union to be compared with those in specialised education domains. The study adopts a critical, interpretive, qualitative case study methodology, and is based on a single case of the Cape Town branch of the South African Municipal Workers' Union. Research was carried out in three organisational settings: the union's organised education programmes, sites of everyday organisational involvement, and the occasion of a national strike of the union