Towards Education for Citizenship*

*This paper develops the first part of an argument presented to the BEMAS Conference in September 1989.

Abstract

The post‐war settlement sought to create the conditions for an educated public. The transformations since the mid‐1970s, however, are bringing into sharper focus the limitations of the social democratic polity. The idea of merely ‘delivering’ citizenship to a passive public was flawed in conception. Moreover, the changes are fragmenting the social and political order. The predicament of our time, therefore, is that while an active public domain is required—to constitute the just conditions for all to develop their powers and capacities—we lack the conditions for creating it. This paper seeks to establish the presuppositions for re‐creating an educated public: the possibility of agency in the development of the self but also in the regeneration of an active public domain.

*This paper develops the first part of an argument presented to the BEMAS Conference in September 1989.

Notes

*This paper develops the first part of an argument presented to the BEMAS Conference in September 1989.