Democratic practices as learning opportunities / / edited by Ruud van der Veen [and three others].

• TeilnehmendeR: Veen, Ruud van der,
• Place / Publishing House: Rotterdam ;, Taipei : : Sense Publishers,, [2007]; ©2007
• Year of Publication: 2007
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource
• Notes: Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Education and learning for democracy take place in a wide variety of contexts worldwide. Traditionally, children are prepared to become responsible citizens in families and schools. In non-formal settings and in their lived experience, adults engage in democratic practices. Some people are active members of political parties or trade unions; others take responsibilities in associations of civil society. Still others engage in participatory practices in labor organizations. New practices and understandings of learning for democracy are often attempts to deal with transformations taking place in the contexts in which people operate. They experience the limits of representative democracy and try to enrich it with practices of direct democracy, thereby creating new learning opportunities for the participants involved. Theoretical aspects of learning in democratic practices are explored in Part I of this book. Part II describes examples of learning in political and social action, while Part III describes examples of democratic practices on the shop floor. Together the book delivers an introduction to the field of education for democracy for both social scientists and practitioners interested in ways to support the learning of democracy. Because of it comprehensive character, the book can be used also as a textbook in graduate and post-graduate courses.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material / Ruud van der Veen , Danny Wildemeersch , Janet Youngblood and Victoria Marsick -- Introduction / Ruud van der Veen , Danny Wildemeersch , Janet Youngblood and Victoria Marsick -- Foundations of democratic education: Kant, Dewey, and Arendt / Gert Biesta -- Relocating social learning as a democratic practice / Danny Wildemeersch and Joke Vandenabeele -- A model for the support of active citizens / Ruud van der Veen -- The adult educator as a boundary worker / Joke Vandenabeele -- Democracy and representation in the US / Janet W. Youngblood -- Learning opportunities for active members of nonprofit organizations in Japan / Kazuho Tsuchiya -- Who learns what in participatory democracy? / Josh Lerner and Daniel Schugurensky -- Developing a citizen education program for Pakistan: Drawing on progressive interpretations of concepts in the Islamic tradition / Bernadette L. Dean -- The struggle for a new collective and democratic identity in post-communist Europe / Agnieszka Bron -- Learning opportunities in community services in Flanders / Carmen Mathijssen and Danny Wildemeersch -- Precarious public interventions / Marcel Spierts -- Learning to organize / Ellen Scully-Russ -- Dealing with difference on the shop floor / Nathalie Schippers and Danny Wildemeersch -- Participation and expression: Democratic practices in a Sierra Leone tile company / Julia Sloan -- About the authors / Ruud van der Veen , Danny Wildemeersch , Janet Youngblood and Victoria Marsick -- Index / Ruud van der Veen , Danny Wildemeersch , Janet Youngblood and Victoria Marsick.