Education for Agonistic Democracy

Reclaiming the Political Insights of Agonism

Dados Bibliográficos

ID10801569
AutoresLars Ørjan Kråkenes (0009-0000-8491-8254, Volda University College, autor correspondente)
Ano2025
Volume44
Fascículo3
Páginas263-281
Data de publicação2025-06-01
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoStudies in Philosophy and Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0039-3746 • E-ISSN: 1573-191X
EditoraSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11217-024-09974-z
OpenAlexW4404198592
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas29

While education for democracy has been heavily influenced by the deliberative perspective on democracy, a recent turn towards an agonistic perspective on democracy places a great deal of faith in the role of political emotion and conflict. Educational scholars have mostly interpreted agonism in relation to the emotional and conflictual experiences that occur within school. Some scholars draw general pedagogical insights from this perspective, while others use it to propose conflictual approaches to classroom discussions. Overestimating, however, the extent to which experiences of agonism within school applies to politically experienced agonisms beyond the school, is problematic. Such overestimations undermine the core political insights of agonistic theory, concerning the democratic potential of radical collective movements. Agonistic theory acknowledges the psychological need among disgruntled citizens for radical alternatives enabling them to oppose and rearticulate the established power dynamics in society. The purpose of agonistic democracy is to enable rearticulations of hegemony through the institutions of representative democracy, rather than as opposed to them. Important for this paper, however, is the argument that such rearticulations depend on the rhetorical force of collective movements. Emphasizing that we cannot assume the presence of such movements in everyday school life, the paper revisits the following question: What are the didactical implications of an agonistic perspective on democracy? The democratic potential of collective movements is not easily captured through experiences within the pedagogical context alone, but proposals are made as to how this potential can be grasped in other ways

Aggression · Agonism · Agonistic behaviour · Democracy · Epistemology · Higher education · Philosophy of education · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · Global Education and Multiculturalism · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology