• Democracy and Citizenship Education: citizenship identities, human rights, social conflict, globalization, xenophobia and racism, securitization, transmigration and immigration.

Dangerous spaces: threatening sites for social justice

by John Schostak

This paper discusses some of the implications of the articles in a special issue of the journal "Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education"

The link to the revised paper is given.  But you can also download the unrevised prepublication version to get a sense of the papers in the special issue.

There is nothing natural about space as it is understood here. Spacing is an act that constructs relationships,... more There is nothing natural about space as it is understood here. Spacing is an act that constructs relationships, intervals, separations and thus boundaries. The earth has no territories other than those imagined and enforced through acts of territorialisation. A city has its private spaces closed to open access and open spaces that are inscribed with what can or cannot be done. As individuals pass by, stop and talk, or do such mundane things such as meet for coffee, interactional spaces are constructed and de-constructed. There are lines of legitimate connection and passage just as there are lines that cannot be crossed, or can only be crossed under certain conditions. In this special edition, each paper, in its different way, focuses on the spaces that emerge as off-limits, margins, edges, no-places; or on what happens when boundaries become indeterminate, shifting or shifty.

ONLINE CERTIFICATE COURSE ON RTI IS COMPLETED

by Pradeep Dwivedi

"Obama and the ‘Arab Spring’: desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment. Implications for a transformative pedagogy"

by John Schostak

paper just published with co-author Lorna Roberts. It develops themes and arguments in earlier conference versions available on academia.edu: see: ‘Democracy matters in race matters’: Obama, desire, hope and the manufacture of disappointment.

For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified... more For a period, in the run up to the election (2007–2008) and the months after the election, the name ‘Obama’ signified hope for millions, not just in America but across the world. As the hope turned to disappointment, the financial crisis deepened and the Arab Spring renewed a call for a ‘humanity’ that could transcend the differences of nations and faiths. What can be learnt from such events about the pedagogies of hope, disappointment and public action? Are there lessons for a transformative pedagogy, an education that could underpin and continuously create the conditions for a politics of freedom and social justice? A range of print, broadcast and digital/Internet news media is analysed to explore the political/rhetorical/pedagogical strategies already set into play that ‘manufacture disappointment’ in order to undermine and negate the transformative, transgressive symbolic significance of ‘Obama’ and thus manage the theme of change to reassert the same.

Rousseau's Social Contract and a Theory for Global Citizenship

by Oscar de la Parra

The role and impact of critical thinking in democratic education: Challenges and possibilities.

by Laura Pinto

Co-authored with J.P. Portelli, In J. Sobocan, L. Groarke, R.H. Johnson & F. Ellett (Eds.) Critical thinking education and assessment: Can higher order thinking be tested? London: Althouse Press, 299-320.

Textbook publishing, textbooks, and democracy: A case study.

by Laura Pinto

Journal of Thought, 40 (3), 99-121

Literacy is just reading and writing, isn’t it? The Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test and its press coverage.

by Laura Pinto

Co-authored with Norris, T. & Boler M, Policy Futures in Education, 5(1) 77-92.

The streaming of working class and minority students in Ontario.

by Laura Pinto

Our Schools/Our Selves, 15 (2) (82), 79-89

Democratic possibilities for educational policy-making: A comparison of Ontario & Porto Alegre.

by Laura Pinto

Our Schools/Our Selves, 15 (1) (81), 59-73

Supranational citizenship and democracy: normative and empirical dimensions

by Carlos Closa

in La Torre, Massimo (ed.) (1998) European citizenship; an institutional challenge(Dordrecht: Kluwer Law) pages 415-433

The Emerging Employment Landscape and Education: Can Schools Prepare Today’s Learners in Time for Tomorrow?

by Marc Mancinelli

Educating the (neoliberal) citizen: reflections from India

by Arun Kumar

Published in 'Development in Practice'. 2012.

Citizenship has gained considerable popular currency in development and is increasingly being used to represent its... more Citizenship has gained considerable popular currency in development and is increasingly being used to represent its objectives and outcomes. The popular conceptualisations of citizenship have not remained unaffected by neo-liberalism, which has established itself firmly as the dominant development framework. In mapping the neo-liberal influences in conceptualisations and expressions of citizenship – evidenced in the work of 11 NGOs in India – the present article interrogates its limitations and effects on development outcomes. The article calls for the need to leverage the inherent plurality of citizenship more substantively by infusing the discourse of rights.

Krpič, T. 2006. Suburbs in Our Minds: Art and Critique of Cultures of Fear in the Light of Cognitive Sociology. Teorija in praksa 43 (3-4): 523-539.

by Tomaž Krpič

Abstract

Author’s intention is to illustrate E. Zerubavel’s typology of mind, used as an analytical tool... more Abstract

Author’s intention is to illustrate E. Zerubavel’s typology of mind, used as an analytical tool for critical interpretation of modern cultures of fear and terror as presented in the movie Predmestje (Suburbs) of one of currently most influential Slovene movie director V. Möderndorfer. Typology of mind consists of three elements: the rigid, the fuzzy and the flexible mind. Author states that the rigid mind, as an essential element of culture of fear, contributes to the construction of many social phenomena, such as homophobia, xenophobia and general intolerance towards others, by rising cognitive boundaries and establishing rigid social order. By application of the fuzzy mind, contained in the form of artistic cognitive promiscuity, transgression of cognitive boundaries is possible. Yet, art itself, without certain moral background, cannot provide adequate social critique. Moral standards allow constitution of the third type of mind, the flexible mind, which mediate between the art and the social context. Author believes that Möderndorfer’s movie Predmestje presents an excellent example of interwoveness of above-mentioned typology of mind by indicating the shift of Slovenian society towards modern culture of fear and terror along with longing for more humane moral order.

"Where are the Missing Masses? The Quasi-publics and Non-publics of Technoscience"

by shiju sam varughese

Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, Vol. 50, No. 2, 2012 (Special Issue: Young Scholars Take a Forward Look), DOI 10.1007/s11024-012-9197-3

The paper offers a political-philosophical analysis of the state and publics in the age of technoscience to propose... more The paper offers a political-philosophical analysis of the state and publics in the age of technoscience to propose three distinct categories of publics: scientific-citizen publics constituted by civil society, quasi-publics that initiate another kind of engagement through the activation of ‘political society,’ and non-publics cast outside these spheres of engagement, based on the empirical contexts of public engagement with technoscience in non-western contexts like India.

Media education e media attivismo: possibili convergenze per una cittadinanza partecipata

by Damiano Felini

Co-authored with Francesco Fabbro.
Published in "Encyclopaideia", 2012, 32, pp. 39-62.
DOI: 10.4442/ency_32_12_02

In scientific literature, Media Education and Media Activism are usually conceived as two parallel worlds. The article... more In scientific literature, Media Education and Media Activism are usually conceived as two parallel worlds. The article stresses the two phenomena trying to go beyond partial interpretations in order to highlight the convergences and divergences, both theoretically and practically. First authors compare the definitions of Media Education and Media
Activism and, in doing so, identify a first macro-convergence between the two worlds in the promotion of critical sense, the functional exercise of citizenship and participatory democracy. Secondly, the article aims to reflect in a socially situated manner on different meanings that this convergence takes when it passes from conceptualization to the practices of educators and activists. Specifically, different types of education and participation promoted by social actors, in the public sphere and civil society, are discussed. In the final part of the article a reciprocal exchange between Media education and media activism in terms of know-how (eg. methodologies and skills) and that of potential alliances between the protagonists of the two movements is suggested. Finally, a number of issues relevant to open new research pathways that move on the fine line between Media Education and Media Activism are raised.

Democracy and Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

by Jean-Marie Hyacinthe Quenum

Canadian Multicultural Broadcasting Policy at Crossroads: Mixed Notions of Participatory Democracy and Cultural Diversity

by Chikako Nagayama

2012. Conference paper published in Ritsumeikan Studies in Language and Culture 23(4). A preliminary exploration to further build upon my original contribution.

This paper examines the problematical definition of minority voices shaped by the Canadian multicultural broadcasting... more This paper examines the problematical definition of minority voices shaped by the Canadian multicultural broadcasting policy framework. Although the framework adheres equal rights and intends to encourage media production and dissemination by Canadian population other than ‘Founding Nations’ (i.e. English and French), it limits the scope of media practices based on the monolingual notion of “ethnic programming.” I argue that, because democratic notions, such as the freedom of expression and equal participation, are only partially realized in the policy framework, racialized populations end up being included only as media consumers in the public domain while the imagined national space is maintained as a “white settler society.” In order to make television a “public service” as it was originally intended in the Broadcasting Act, I assert that the prevalent idea of cultural preservation in Canadian multiculturalism should be revised to foster a common space for civic participation.

2011 The three anthropological approaches to neoliberalism, in International Social Science Journal, Vol 61 (202) : 351–364.

by Mathieu Hilgers

International Social Science Journal, Volume 61, Issue 202, 2011: 351–364.

For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the... more For around fifteen years now, anthropology has been engaged in the study of neoliberalism. What contribution does the discipline have to make to a debate largely monopolized by economics and political science? To answer this question, the present article returns to the major texts and highlights the three perspectives from which anthropology has approached neoliberal expansion: culturalist, systemic and the approach based on governmentality. Each has its own epistemological presuppositions and a specific conception of anthropology, globalization and neoliberalism. The article highlights the relevance and limitations of these approaches.

2012, « The Historicity of the Neoliberal State », in Social Anthropology, volume 20, n° 1, pp. 80-94

by Mathieu Hilgers

Debate with Loic Wacquant “Three Steps to a Historical Anthropology of Actually Existing Neoliberalism." Social Anthropology, 20, 1, with responses in the next issue: Jamie Peck, Nick Theodore, and Neil Brenner, Stephen Collier, Daniel Goldstein, Johanna Bockman, Don Kalb...

Slavery and Colonialism: The Worst Terrorism on Africa

by Mohamed Eno

Co-authored with Omar A. Eno, Mohamed H. Ingiriis, and Jamal M. Haji; Published in African Renaissance, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2012.

Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is... more Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is the axis of evil and devastation of mankind. However, the deliberate use of the term terrorism in recent decades was carefully selected, mainly, against a certain religion (Islam). The idea was then globally politicized by the Western world. Leaving that scholarly view in its own right, we disagree with the opinion raising terrorism as the devil’s just-born child of evil, when in reality Africans had been terrorized for centuries as slaves and human chattel. Hence the basis for the concept of this thesis: conceptualizing the episode of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ from the broader perspective of its practice from the Middle Passage or the Atlantic Slave Trade. To portray that argument and broaden the scope of the debate over this critically sensitive subject, we divided the discussion into three sections: an examination of what constitutes terrorism and terrorist; history of terrorism and terrorists from an Africa perspective; and the ideological constraints within the subject of terrorism as practiced by the US and its Western allies.