Middle-Man Theorizing: Biesta on Rancière and Mouffe into Citizenship Education

• IGert Biesta is in Citizenship and Education putting forwards is based on a strategy which we are titling Middle Man Theorizing, by which we mean a strategy of mobilizing theoretical insights from another domain into your own and thereby create an alternative pathway for possible conceptual renewals. The man in the middle” is the author in personal (here Gert Biesta) - the one who is giving voice of others (here Jacques Rancière and Chantal Mouffe) by stating their thoughts and ideas in order to re-conceptualizing a certain problematic (here citizenship education). This kind of middle man theorizing is very frequent in the educational field (as noted by e.g. Foss Lindblad & Lindblad, 2009 concerning the framing of educational restructuring and teaching in relation to professionalization theorizing) and has its own dynamic in terms of conceptual travelling and knowledge organization. It is our ambition to discuss this strategy, its strengths as well as its weaknesses, in relation to the Biesta text. Middle-man theorizing has a double agenda. On the one hand the stating of a problem, on the other hand the presentation of conceptual imports by means of which the problem is going to be fruitfully handled (solved, re-stated, re-conceptualised etc.). In the text by Biesta the very possibilities of education to contribute to what is called “the desire for democracy” both sets and solves the problem of citizenship education. “The “desire for democracy” could be seen as a condensed conceptual result of Biestas reading of the writings of Chantal Mouffe and Jacques Rancière. It is based on distinctions such as those between police/politics, antagonism/agonism, subject/subjectification etc., and is seen as the possible solution to the problems of democracy generally, an alternative both to “the logic of positive identity”, which is said to dominate the conceptions of citizenship, and to “the logic of socialization”, which is said to dominate the conception of education.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Utbildningsvetenskap -- Pedagogik (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Educational Sciences -- Pedagogy (hsv//eng)

Keyword

"The Poilitical"

education

curriculum theory

citizenship education

Lärarutbildning och pedagogisk yrkesverksamhet

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)