In this beginning of the twenty-first century, the concept of "training for social leaders" has introduced on the one hand, a less restricted definition of the role of people that activate different movements or social organizations; and on the other hand, it designates a vast and complex process of education and training for change.
In the social movements of the past, the common expressions traditionally used were workers or farmers union leaders, community leaders, native-community leaders, youth or womens leaders, to designate persons who had a rallying and leadership power vis-à-vis their affiliated members. Use of the concept was altered at the break of the twenty-first century, with social movements and social studies taking up the expression in a larger sense to designate persons, men or women, young people or adults, who facilitate or support the organization of social actors and their actions at the local, national, regional, and global levels.
Similarly, the expression "training of social leaders" should now be used in a way that is not restricted to the training of leaders, but to designate complex processes of education and training for change, which include the genesis and development of management agents and at the same time, a vast range of educational practices, as well of values and of instrumental knowledge and aptitudes of various types. As such, it is becoming an increasingly central element in social organizations.
- 
Printable version