Call for Papers - Democratic Education in Transition

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About the Organization

The University of Helsinki is Finland’s largest and oldest academic institution and an innovative centre of science and thinking. Since 1640, we have contributed to the establishment of a fair and equal society that is considered one of the best in the world. Today, our multidisciplinary academic community solves problems that affect us all – with the power of knowledge, for the world.

About the Call for Papers

In recent years, democracy as a value system and a form of government has faced rigorous challenges. The increasing success of populist politics, decreasing popular interest in elections and party politics, the new rise of authoritarian forms of leadership and militarism, various human rights breaches, and the growing flow of mis- and disinformation among other phenomena have created serious doubts concerning the future of democracy. Similarly, the possibility of education to contribute to the creation of democratic citizens has been placed into question; especially the ‘traditional’ approaches to democratic education, deriving from liberal and deliberative theories, have been criticised for their non-correspondence with political and educational realities, and for their potentially Eurocentric and imperialist nature. While many of the prevailing approaches to democratic education seem theoretically problematic and unequipped to meet the current challenges of contemporary democracies, novel theoretical openings in the field have been scarce.

Against this background, this international workshop in philosophy of education focuses on the question, how should the nature and role of democratic education be understood in the context of the current political, cultural, and theoretical landscape? Is the idea that education plays a key role in creating democratic citizens implausible and outdated? If not, how should the theories and practices of democratic education be reformed to meet the many challenges of contemporary democracies?

The conference invites presentations from different theoretical perspectives and welcomes both philosophical contributions and presentations that merge empirical and philosophical considerations on the topic of democratic education. The possible themes of presentations can involve (but are not limited to)

• Theoretical controversies in the theory of democratic education
• Democratic education and educational institutions
• Democratic education and populism
• Democratic education and marginalised groups
• Democratic education and human rights
• The role of epistemic issues (truth and knowledge) in democratic education
• New, emerging strands of thought in democratic education

How to Apply

Proposals for paper presentations should contain author information, abstract of max 500 words and up to 5 keywords. Presentation proposals are submitted via email to kahifi2023@helsinki.fi by 28 February 2023 with "DEMOPOL workshop" in the email title. Acceptance announcements will be sent in March 2023. Presentations will include a 20-minute presentation followed by 10-minute discussion.

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