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This book explores the inherent tension in civic education. There is a surging belief in contemporary European society that liberal democracy should work harder to reproduce the civic and normative setups of national populations through public education. The cardinal notion is that education remains the best means to accomplish this end, and educational regimes appropriate tools to make the young more tolerant, civic, democratic, communal, cosmopolitan, and prone to engaged activism. This book is concerned with the ambiguities that strain standard visions of civic education and educational statehood. On the one hand, civic-normative education is expected to drive tolerance in the face of conflicting good-life affirmations and accelerating worldview pluralisation; on the other hand, nation-states are primarily interested in reproducing the normative prerogatives that prevail in restricted cultural environments. This means that civic education unfolds on two irreconcilable planes at once: one cosmopolitan/tolerant, another parochial/intolerant. The book will be of significant interest to students and scholars of education, sociology, normative statehood, democracy, and liberal political culture, particularly those working in the areas of civic education; as well as education policy-makers.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. Civic Education and Liberal Democracy.- 3. Cultural Pluralism and Social Cohesion.- 4. Cosmopolitan and Parochial Value-Making.- 5. Tolerance in Civic and Religious Education.- 6. Education for the Good Life.- 7. Revisiting Civic Education and Liberal Democracy.
About the author
Peter Strandbrink is Associate Professor in Political Science at Södertörn University, Sweden. His work has been published in
Religion, State & Society,
Citizenship, Education & Social Justice,
Tidskrift för Politisk Filosofi, and in the co-edited research volume
Crosses & Crossings: Borders, Educations and Religions in Northern Europe.
Summary
This book explores the inherent tension in civic education. There is a surging belief in contemporary European society that liberal democracy should work harder to reproduce the civic and normative setups of national populations through public education. The cardinal notion is that education remains the best means to accomplish this end, and educational regimes appropriate tools to make the young more tolerant, civic, democratic, communal, cosmopolitan, and prone to engaged activism. This book is concerned with the ambiguities that strain standard visions of civic education and educational statehood. On the one hand, civic-normative education is expected to drive tolerance in the face of conflicting good-life affirmations and accelerating worldview pluralisation; on the other hand, nation-states are primarily interested in reproducing the normative prerogatives that prevail in restricted cultural environments. This means that civic education unfolds on two irreconcilable planes at once: one cosmopolitan/tolerant, another parochial/intolerant. The book will be of significant interest to students and scholars of education, sociology, normative statehood, democracy, and liberal political culture, particularly those working in the areas of civic education; as well as education policy-makers.
Additional text
“This book … aims to approach the question of civic education from a broad perspective, combining empirical studies with conceptual and normative analysis, is greatly to be welcomed. … the book approaches the issues from a European perspective, and, moreover, includes the results of research from an empirical study of northern and eastern rather than the more-studied western European countries.” (Iseult Honohan, Constellations, vol. 25 (2), June, 2018)
“Strandbrink (Södertörn Univ., Sweden) questions the viability of the liberal democratic model of civic education. … This book is appropriate for upper-division undergraduates, grad students, faculty, and perhaps some practitioners. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals.” (E. R. Gill, Choice, Vol. 55 (10), June, 2018)
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"This book ... aims to approach the question of civic education from a broad perspective, combining empirical studies with conceptual and normative analysis, is greatly to be welcomed. ... the book approaches the issues from a European perspective, and, moreover, includes the results of research from an empirical study of northern and eastern rather than the more-studied western European countries." (Iseult Honohan, Constellations, vol. 25 (2), June, 2018)
"Strandbrink (Södertörn Univ., Sweden) questions the viability of the liberal democratic model of civic education. ... This book is appropriate for upper-division undergraduates, grad students, faculty, and perhaps some practitioners. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through professionals." (E. R. Gill, Choice, Vol. 55 (10), June, 2018)
