Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one New openings
- two Driving democracy
- three Radicalising entrepreneurialism
- four The rise of plural control
- five A different view: organic meta-governance
- six The concept of adaptive strategies
- seven Embodying change
- eight Degrees of democracy
- nine Practice in the making
- ten Energies for change
- Notes
- References
- Index
ten - Energies for change
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2022
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- one New openings
- two Driving democracy
- three Radicalising entrepreneurialism
- four The rise of plural control
- five A different view: organic meta-governance
- six The concept of adaptive strategies
- seven Embodying change
- eight Degrees of democracy
- nine Practice in the making
- ten Energies for change
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
[D]emocracy often comes camouflaged … democratic inventions happen under other names. (John Keane, 2009, p 131)
Our democracy has to become militant if it is to survive. Of course, there is a fundamental difference between the fighting spirit of the dictators on the one hand, who aim at imposing a total system of values and a strait-jacket social organization upon their citizens, and a militant democracy on the other, which becomes militant only in the defence of the agreed right procedure of social change and those basic virtues and values – such as brotherly love, mutual help, decency, social justice, freedom, respect for the person, etc. – which are the basis of the peaceful functioning of a social order. (Karl Mannheim, 1943, p 7)
Karl Mannheim's proposition about militant democracy (the second of the quotes above), although written during the Second World War, still has meaning for today. Democracy is not an accomplished fact of our way of life. Nor is it free from dangers. It is under immense pressure – from inequalities of power immersed in and spread across the economic system, and cascading through to education; from political threats that restrict freedoms in response to conflicts and perceived threats to security; and from the low standing often accorded to elected politicians and the system that they are at the heart of. If it is understood in its richest sense – as holistic democracy concerned with meaning, sharing power, dialogue that transforms and transcends narrow interests, and holistic well-being – there is much to do to make it a reality.
The discussion in this book has highlighted trends that point to positive possibilities. The third way policies of marketising metagovernance have generated a dynamic from which a democratic self-organising system is able to emerge: from the spaces and tensions within plural controlled schooling, bureau-enterprise culture, entrepreneurialism, network-focused working, student voice and co-constructive approaches to learning. In these are sown the seeds of organic meta-governance – that is, governance which steers rather than prescribes and which nurtures democratic ways of working, encourages deep reflection and facilitates diversity in service of the development of people's ‘substantive liberty’ (the flourishing of all their capabilities as human beings). The development of organic meta-governance faces profound challenges, however.
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- Information
- Transforming Education PolicyShaping a Democratic Future, pp. 155 - 164Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2011