Education and Democratic Participation ─ The Making of Learning Communities

In Educating Democracy, Ranson argues that neoliberalism has dismantled comprehensive education and public services. Furthermore, the possibility of confronting the ensuing predicaments has been systematically undermined by diminishing the public sphere of democratic collective purpose and cooperation, while social divisions and cultural misrecognition intensify to the point of crisis. This book is a timely contribution that will inform the emerging debate about the value of educating citizens and communities so that they understand how they can participate in re-making democracy in spite of all of these challenges.

Ranson demonstrates in this volume that renewing a just, socially integrated society will need to look to comprehensive learning communities which provide the experience of growing up in diverse, yet cohesive and tolerant, neighbourhoods. As a consequence, education will need to reimagine learners as prospective citizens and as cooperative makers of democratic communities in which they live and work. The book argues for a broader pedagogy of democracy, asserting that when citizens participate in public forums, councils and associations, they learn to recognise and value others from different communities and, as a result, learn to cooperate with them in order to confront the common dilemmas facing society.

This volume demonstrates that democracy is indeed able to educate and is aimed at researchers, academics and postgraduates, particularly those lecturing and studying in the areas of education, the social sciences and politics. It should also appeal to professional and practitioner communities in school and college teaching, as well as those in local authorities and related public services.

Stewart Ranson (BSc. Econ, M.A., D. Soc. Sc.) is Professor Emeritus at the University of Warwick (2009). He was Professor of Education at Warwick (2005-2009) and an Associate Fellow of the Institute of Governance and Public Management, in the Business School (2009-2012). Previously at the University of Birmingham, he was a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Local Government Studies for fifteen years before being appointed as Professor of Education in the School of Education (1989-2004).