Suchergebnisse

This text systematically brings together the developments in the social & political theory of education. It offers an introduction to the debates within the field & provides an argument for a democratic & normative view of education. It looks at the major disputes within social, cultural & political approaches to education

Why has 'culture' become central to political debates? How might we rethink questions of citizenship in an information age? Will cosmopolitanism become the key ideal of the future? This guide links questions of identity, individualization, multiculturalism, and mediation to a politics of culture

Culture' and 'citizenship' are two of the most hotly contested concepts in the social sciences. What are the relationships between them? This book explores the issues of inclusion and exclusion, the market and policy, rights and responsibilities, and the definitions of citizens and non-citizens

"This book outlines the new linkages between culture and citizenship. In particular, it sheds light on issues of inclusion and exclusion, market and policy, rights and responsibilities, and the definition of citizens and non-citizens. The substantive topics investigated include cultural democracy; intersubjectivity and the unconscious; globalization and the nation state; European citizenship; and discourses on cultural policy. For anyone working or studying at the interface between citizenship and culture, this is an indispensable and timely volume."--Jacket

This article seeks to recover the importance of George Orwell as a critical public intellectual. Orwell remains a controversial figure for both The New Left and Anarchists during the post-war period. Here I seek to recover the complexity of Orwell's writing which ranged across a number of political traditions including anarchism, liberalism and democratic socialism against some of the charges made by prominent members of the New Left. Especially critical at this juncture were a number of anarchist writers who were more receptive to Orwell's influence. In the concluding section I seek to argue that Orwell while not an anarchist remains an important figure for those concerned about the growing authoritarianism of the twenty-first century.

The politics of the Anthropocene has been widely debated within recent sociological theory. This article seeks to argue that Marxism, critical theory and especially the work of Herbert Marcuse have a great deal to contribute to these debates. Here, I seek to link together the recent revival of interest in the idea of the commons by the alter-globalisation movement and Marxist social theory in an attempt to challenge some of the dominant assumptions in respect of the nature/culture division and the neoliberal dominance of mainstream politics. The more critical politics of the commons would suggest both a radical politics fit for the twenty-first century and a way of understanding the environmental crisis located within critical understandings of the histories of capitalism and social movements. This is suggestive of a civilisation-based politics focused on questions of emancipation informed by political economy, a critique of the dominant consumer society and culture rather than questions of deconstruction. In the final section, I seek to explore how Marcuse's concerns remain linked to contemporary global ethical movements for change.

The politics of the Anthropocene has been widely debated within recent sociological theory. This article seeks to argue that Marxism, critical theory and especially the work of Herbert Marcuse has a great deal to contribute to these debates. Here I seek to link together the recent revival of interest in the idea of the commons by the alter-globalisation movement and Marxist social theory in an attempt to challenge some of the dominant assumptions in respect of the nature/culture division and the neoliberal dominance of mainstream politics. The more critical politics of the commons would suggest both a radical politics fit for the twenty-first century and a way of understanding the environmental crisis located within critical understandings of the histories of capitalism and social movements. This is suggestive of a civilisation based politics focused on questions of emancipation informed by political economy, a critique of the dominant consumer society and culture rather than questions of deconstruction. In the final section, I seek to explore how Marcuse's concerns remain linked to contemporary global ethical movements for change.

Much of the sociological work on intellectuals is mostly concerned with the structural role they play within society. In this respect, Raymond Williams is best understood in Gramscian (1988) terms as an organic intellectual connected to the labour movement and the working-class, seeking to criticise the dominating features of contemporary capitalism. Williams is widely seen as a post-war intellectual connected to the New Left and organised labour. Indeed Williams's (1981) own account of intellectuals is mostly concerned with exploring the structurally conditioned class-based society disallows critical study. More recently sociological work has concentrated on the reasons behind the relative decline of intellectuals due to the dominance of think tanks, consumerism and the increasingly instrumental narrow specialisms (Furedi 2004, Misztal 2012). There is then perhaps a nostalgia for the 'big intellectuals' of the past who were capable of producing intellectual narratives beyond the more modest aims of contemporary knowledge producers (Bauman 1992). Whatever the contemporary insights of this view, there are limitations to the sociologically-informed, structural account of intellectual cultural production. Jeffrey Alexander (2016) has recently argued that the sociology of intellectuals needs to take a more performative turn. Instead of viewing intellectuals purely in terms of structural class relationships we need to understand their ability to produce dramatic and compelling narratives. In other words, when considering intellectuals we need to understand their ability to create exciting stories and compelling performances. Especially significant in this respect are heroic narratives and the stories of good versus evil. In other words, the performative effect of ideas is in making an impact upon society. As a Durkheimian sociologist Alexander (2016:348) is interested in how intellectuals produce ideas of the sacred and profane through the production of binary categories more generally. However Alexander (2003:228) ...