‘Towards a society of equals’: democracy, education, cooperation and the practice of radical inclusion¹

1 The article draws upon a paper presented at BERA 2016, 13–15 Sept., Leeds University. The original title was: “Towards a Society of Equals: Dewey, the Co-operative Movement and radical democracy undermining neoliberal forms of schooling” and was presented at the Key Note Symposium: Education, social theory and social justice: the challenge of theorising alternative futures. This is one of the publications it has spawned.

ABSTRACT

The radical inclusion of the different interests and powers of all is fundamental to social equality. Moreover, both democracy and the associated practices of cooperation depend upon an equality of different voices if they are not to fall into forms of authoritarianism. Cooperation involves the free association of individuals who aggregate their individual powers to complete projects they could not accomplish alone. Those mutual dependencies require equality of participation and reward if co-operation is not to become hierarchical line management where the powers and participation of some are more greatly rewarded than those of others. And if education is employed to privilege the development of the powers and interests of some over others, it becomes reduced to a form of engineering to fit the interests of the powerful. Thus, I argue that discourses of equality and radical inclusion are co-extensive with democracy, co-operation and education.

KEYWORDS:

• Radical inclusion
• social justice
• co-operative schools

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

John Schostak is emeritus professor at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU). Before joining MMU he was a professor and director of the Centre for Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia. Over the years he led around 70 funded projects and drew upon that experience in his publications focusing on research methodology and the issues of bringing about change. These included with Jill Schostak Radical Research (Routledge 2008), Researching Violence, Democracy and the Rights of People (Routledge 2010), Writing Critically (Routledge 2013) and most recently with Ivor Goodson, Democracy, Education and Research: The Struggle for Public Life (Routledge 2019).

Notes

1 The article draws upon a paper presented at BERA 2016, 13–15 Sept., Leeds University. The original title was: “Towards a Society of Equals: Dewey, the Co-operative Movement and radical democracy undermining neoliberal forms of schooling” and was presented at the Key Note Symposium: Education, social theory and social justice: the challenge of theorising alternative futures. This is one of the publications it has spawned.