Democratic communities of inquiry: Creating opportunities to develop citizenship

Abstract

One of the most significant obstacles to inquiry and deliberation is citizenship education. There are few mechanisms for the development of citizens’ democratic character within most societies, and greater opportunities need to be made to ensure our democracies are epistemically justifiable. The character and quality of citizens’ interactions are a crucial aspect for any democracy; their engagement (or lack thereof) make a significant difference between a deliberative society and an electoral oligarchy. I contend that through demarchic procedures, citizens are subject to collective learning process in virtue of being part of communal decision-making and in so doing can develop their capacities for deliberation with practice over time. Demarchic bodies (functionally decentralised authorities that have members chosen by random selection) can be utilised as communities of inquiry (learning processes where participants collectively construct a problem). By viewing democracy as both a learning process and a decision-making mechanism, the quality of deliberation and participation can improve over time as well.

Keywords:

• Community of inquiry
• demarchy
• citizenship education
• sortition
• habits of mind
• inquiry