In this essay I scrutinize the challenge Paul Hirst set to educational philosophers in rejecting rational autonomy as the central aim of education and proposing initiation into social practices instead. Although I disagree with some dimensions of Hirst’s argument, I find his main idea of utmost importance in answering some burning challenges of contemporary democratic education. Contrary to Hirst’s thinking, I argue that this theoretical development can be best done within the framework of philosophical pragmatism, on which appropriate interpretations of (...) the concepts of democracy, social practices and habits can be based. In this framework, it is also possible to preserve as educational ideals the pragmatist interpretations of the notions of rationality and autonomy. Based on my theoretical development relying both on early pragmatist and contemporary thinkers, I argue that education for democracy should start from the aim of providing children with emotionally rewarding experiences of participation, membership and belonging. (shrink)

This article argues that current economic upheaval should be understood as a problem of domination, in two respects: the ‘dyadic’ domination of one actor by another, and the ‘structural’ domination of individuals by a diffuse, decentralized, but nevertheless human-made system. Such domination should be contested through specifically democratic political mobilization, through institutions and practices that expand the political agency of citizens themselves. The article advances this argument by synthesizing two traditions of political thought. It reconstructs radical democratic theory from the (...) Progressive Era. These thinkers in turn help to reinforce contemporary debates in neorepublican thought, resolving disputes over the scope of domination and the relationship between domination and democracy. This synthesis offers a novel normative framework for diagnosing and responding to the current combination of economic upheaval and political dysfunction. (shrink)