How Does A Society Change?: Reflexivity In Politics And Education (Social Imaginaries)

One of the most challenging questions of today is whether it is possible to change a development where the activities of human beings are threatening the conditions for their very own existence. With one crisis leading into the next, the need for radical socio-political change comes across as necessary and desirable, yet so hard to imagine in practice. At the heart of the matter is a deeper crisis of the socio-political imagination. To understand how a society reproduces and changes itself, Ingerid S. Straume argues that we must look to societies' institutions and the imaginaries they embody. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, Straume insists that the keys to change and social creativity can be found in the reflexive potential of institutions, especially politics and education. Neoliberal rationality, on its part, has become dominant in many parts of the world precisely by occulting the socio-political capacity for self-reflection. Its meritocratic worldview--where individuals are set up to compete inside a framework where social, collective imaginaries are absent--seriously weakens the capacity for questioning institutions and the imaginaries they embody. This occultation takes place in academic theories, through policy reforms, via technologies, and in individuals' self-understanding. In response to the planetary eco-crises and the weakening of democratic ideals, a more realistic approach is needed where collectives, not individuals in isolation, become the mode for self-realisation and living well within existing, natural limits. Inspired by important political thinkers such as Cornelius Castoriadis and Hannah Arendt, How Does a Society Change? develops a theoretical framework to elucidate how politics and education are two interrelated domains where a society may openly reflect upon itself. In short, a society that recognizes its capacity to change itself also recognizes the transformative, instituting potential of politics and education.

• | Author: Ingerid S. Straume
• | Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• | Publication Date: May 17, 2023
• | Number of Pages: 158 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Hardcover
• | ISBN-10: 178661152X
• | ISBN-13: 9781786611529