research proposal - group 3
Group-3-Research-paper (doc, 31 KB)
Fabien - 17. Mai, 17:24
Group 3: Alternatives for Socioeconomic Development in Vienna
Donnerstag, 17. Mai 2007
Mittwoch, 16. Mai 2007
Alternative Theories of Socioeconomic Development
Paulo Freires pedagogy of the oppressed
Paulo Freire (* September 19, 1921 in Recife; † May 2, 1997 in Sao Paulo) was a Brazilian intellectual and pedagogue of the oppressed, who tried to contribute to the liberation of the oppressed by educating the nation. Freires ultimate teaching ambition was a constant advancement from the status quo. He became famous in 1963 for his alphabetization programme, in which he taught reading and writing to farmers in only 40 days. This programme was opposed by the elite, fearing an increase of the power of the unprivileged through higher education. In 1964, Paulo Freire was arrested after a military revolt ad 72 days later he was expelled from the country. He then continued his work in Chile, Harvard, Geneva, Guinea-Bissau and Angola.
As an objector to capitalism, the existent economic system, he wanted to demonstrate alternative ways to reach the subordinate goals of freedom, equality and solidarity for everyone.
For Freire the “education of the nation” did not only mean teaching people how to read and write, but mainly it meant to teach people how to live their lives on their own terms. The people should be able to explore their environment, understand it and “shape it as subjects”, not “accept it as objects”. Education empowers.
For Freire exploring the world critically is not a privilege of the elite, but a basic characteristic of all humans. The lack of political maturity and freedom of the oppressed is not natural, but the result of unjust structures.
Raising consciousness should lead to critical and independent thinking and to approaching the world with eyes wide open.
Freires pedagogy works on the basis of dialogue. He argues that human beings which are not able to speak, can survive, but cannot participate in the society. However, not only the elite take part in these dialogues, but an exchange with the population and its interests is emphasized. Only in an open exchange the contradictory reality can be understood.
Freedom for all is only possible in a world, where winning is not the subordinate goal, according to Freire. In a competitive society there are only few winners. For him, the goal of liberation is the transition from a divided society to a dialogical society, in which there is room for all. Everyone should benefit from everybody’s work.
For Freire this means it is necessary to bring together mind and emotion and also rationality and ethics.
Learning from Paulo Freire
1.) Pedagogy of Paulo Freire
Freire considered the human being as the center of education. For him, an important aim of teaching was the understanding that no one equals another and hence everybody is important for the course of the world. His teaching method, basing on respect and dialogue was guided by this insight. Paulo Freire criticized the traditional teaching methods. Comparing traditional schools to a place where pupils are crammed with education and the pupils’ heads to a box in which knowledge is put in, he concluded that the more knowledge fits into a pupil’s head, the more successful is education. Freire argues that in this system leads to a separation into educated and uneducated people. While the educated people tend to be bigheaded, convinced to know everything, the uneducated suffer from an inferiority complex believing not to have any knowledge at all.
The approach of Freire aimed to a resolution of this inflexible hierarchy. Instead, teachers should be taught their selves in a dialogue with the pupils. Starting point of this method is the conviction that nobody knows everything, and nobody knows nothing. Hence the critical condition for the realization of this method is the awareness of the teachers of not knowing everything.
2.) Education and authority
While Freire opposes authority and a misunderstanding of the grassroots democracy, which he classifies as sectarian, he is aware of the necessity of education and authority. Education for Freire is a process of self-development as well as the search for autonomy, and requires a rebellion against the status quo. As a result, education should aim to a reduction of the injustice in the world. Although Freire recognizes the power of education, he warns not to overestimate its importance. Just as it holds the potential of changing the society, it cannot unfold its revolutionary element, argues Freire. This is due to the opposition of the elite which will always oppress an alteration of the status quo. The danger of Freires approach to education is at the same time its limitation.
The function of authority is to set limits, in respect of the knowledge, the experience and the values of the teacher. Freire considers authority as a condition for different educated people to explore the world together.
„Development“
(Dynamics and development, actual, real, utopia, alternatives, politics of the possible, knowledge strategies, outcome) by Andreas Novy, Lukas Lengauer & Michaela Trippl
The common way to measure development is the GDP. Alternative theories use different indicators for analyzing the situation of a specific state or region. The human development index (HDI) tries to combine the two while regarding GDP and two social aspects. Important in this context is the fact that development and (economic) progress are not synonyms. The text then highlights the critical relation between donors of development and recipients. The approach should be one of active self-empowerment rather than passive acceptance. Therefore education is needed in order to build up and increase “human capital”. The theory has to be combined with practise.
A problem results from the economies ability to handle investments while politics only set the guidelines. The text mentions nationalization and the interdependency of development. This means a balance and concurrency between the economic and the social progress. Therefore dialogue is an important tool. In this context the text analysis power and its disposition in between discourse, labour, capital and organisation.
Finally the key is presented within the sections of dialectic and dialog. Economy and economic development can’t be treated separately. It has to be integrated in a wider, integral approach – regarding economical, regional and social aspects.
Bullet 3 and 4 criticizes the common Form of Neoliberalism as it has negative implications concerning development, gender and environmental issues. Further on Neoliberalism is pursuing an individualistic and homogenising strategy. In this kind of corporate structure, diversity can’t coexist. That fact helped emerging different social classes. Therefore to antagonize this kind of development, the socioeconomic Development is being explained and analysed to search for political alternatives. Here fore the generic term is “Demologos”.
There are three analytical and practical elements to be separately analysed. The first element is “IS (actual conjuncture), 2. SHALL (Concrete Utopia) and third „ DO (practical development).
The first element is an analysis of conjuncture, which is an analysis of the actual development of a situation. The author describes the second element as development theories with examples of how more sustainable development could be theoretically achieved. The so called “SHALL” element, the concrete Utopia, which describes another world that is possible apart from the idea of Neoliberalism. To this, the concept of the PEE is being mentioned. PEE contains the concept of a sustainable and integrative development and in difference to Neoliberalism it doesn’t puts his main focus on economic elements. Regarding the third element ,the “DO“ practical development, Amartya Sen is being mentioned who defines development as “freedom” in terms of the individuals as a “growth and progress oriented self”. Finally the authors suppose that an institutionalisation of a countervailing power should be the key objective as that would lead to more equality and sustainability in areas like economics, politics and culture.
Paulo Freire (* September 19, 1921 in Recife; † May 2, 1997 in Sao Paulo) was a Brazilian intellectual and pedagogue of the oppressed, who tried to contribute to the liberation of the oppressed by educating the nation. Freires ultimate teaching ambition was a constant advancement from the status quo. He became famous in 1963 for his alphabetization programme, in which he taught reading and writing to farmers in only 40 days. This programme was opposed by the elite, fearing an increase of the power of the unprivileged through higher education. In 1964, Paulo Freire was arrested after a military revolt ad 72 days later he was expelled from the country. He then continued his work in Chile, Harvard, Geneva, Guinea-Bissau and Angola.
As an objector to capitalism, the existent economic system, he wanted to demonstrate alternative ways to reach the subordinate goals of freedom, equality and solidarity for everyone.
For Freire the “education of the nation” did not only mean teaching people how to read and write, but mainly it meant to teach people how to live their lives on their own terms. The people should be able to explore their environment, understand it and “shape it as subjects”, not “accept it as objects”. Education empowers.
For Freire exploring the world critically is not a privilege of the elite, but a basic characteristic of all humans. The lack of political maturity and freedom of the oppressed is not natural, but the result of unjust structures.
Raising consciousness should lead to critical and independent thinking and to approaching the world with eyes wide open.
Freires pedagogy works on the basis of dialogue. He argues that human beings which are not able to speak, can survive, but cannot participate in the society. However, not only the elite take part in these dialogues, but an exchange with the population and its interests is emphasized. Only in an open exchange the contradictory reality can be understood.
Freedom for all is only possible in a world, where winning is not the subordinate goal, according to Freire. In a competitive society there are only few winners. For him, the goal of liberation is the transition from a divided society to a dialogical society, in which there is room for all. Everyone should benefit from everybody’s work.
For Freire this means it is necessary to bring together mind and emotion and also rationality and ethics.
Learning from Paulo Freire
1.) Pedagogy of Paulo Freire
Freire considered the human being as the center of education. For him, an important aim of teaching was the understanding that no one equals another and hence everybody is important for the course of the world. His teaching method, basing on respect and dialogue was guided by this insight. Paulo Freire criticized the traditional teaching methods. Comparing traditional schools to a place where pupils are crammed with education and the pupils’ heads to a box in which knowledge is put in, he concluded that the more knowledge fits into a pupil’s head, the more successful is education. Freire argues that in this system leads to a separation into educated and uneducated people. While the educated people tend to be bigheaded, convinced to know everything, the uneducated suffer from an inferiority complex believing not to have any knowledge at all.
The approach of Freire aimed to a resolution of this inflexible hierarchy. Instead, teachers should be taught their selves in a dialogue with the pupils. Starting point of this method is the conviction that nobody knows everything, and nobody knows nothing. Hence the critical condition for the realization of this method is the awareness of the teachers of not knowing everything.
2.) Education and authority
While Freire opposes authority and a misunderstanding of the grassroots democracy, which he classifies as sectarian, he is aware of the necessity of education and authority. Education for Freire is a process of self-development as well as the search for autonomy, and requires a rebellion against the status quo. As a result, education should aim to a reduction of the injustice in the world. Although Freire recognizes the power of education, he warns not to overestimate its importance. Just as it holds the potential of changing the society, it cannot unfold its revolutionary element, argues Freire. This is due to the opposition of the elite which will always oppress an alteration of the status quo. The danger of Freires approach to education is at the same time its limitation.
The function of authority is to set limits, in respect of the knowledge, the experience and the values of the teacher. Freire considers authority as a condition for different educated people to explore the world together.
„Development“
(Dynamics and development, actual, real, utopia, alternatives, politics of the possible, knowledge strategies, outcome) by Andreas Novy, Lukas Lengauer & Michaela Trippl
The common way to measure development is the GDP. Alternative theories use different indicators for analyzing the situation of a specific state or region. The human development index (HDI) tries to combine the two while regarding GDP and two social aspects. Important in this context is the fact that development and (economic) progress are not synonyms. The text then highlights the critical relation between donors of development and recipients. The approach should be one of active self-empowerment rather than passive acceptance. Therefore education is needed in order to build up and increase “human capital”. The theory has to be combined with practise.
A problem results from the economies ability to handle investments while politics only set the guidelines. The text mentions nationalization and the interdependency of development. This means a balance and concurrency between the economic and the social progress. Therefore dialogue is an important tool. In this context the text analysis power and its disposition in between discourse, labour, capital and organisation.
Finally the key is presented within the sections of dialectic and dialog. Economy and economic development can’t be treated separately. It has to be integrated in a wider, integral approach – regarding economical, regional and social aspects.
Bullet 3 and 4 criticizes the common Form of Neoliberalism as it has negative implications concerning development, gender and environmental issues. Further on Neoliberalism is pursuing an individualistic and homogenising strategy. In this kind of corporate structure, diversity can’t coexist. That fact helped emerging different social classes. Therefore to antagonize this kind of development, the socioeconomic Development is being explained and analysed to search for political alternatives. Here fore the generic term is “Demologos”.
There are three analytical and practical elements to be separately analysed. The first element is “IS (actual conjuncture), 2. SHALL (Concrete Utopia) and third „ DO (practical development).
The first element is an analysis of conjuncture, which is an analysis of the actual development of a situation. The author describes the second element as development theories with examples of how more sustainable development could be theoretically achieved. The so called “SHALL” element, the concrete Utopia, which describes another world that is possible apart from the idea of Neoliberalism. To this, the concept of the PEE is being mentioned. PEE contains the concept of a sustainable and integrative development and in difference to Neoliberalism it doesn’t puts his main focus on economic elements. Regarding the third element ,the “DO“ practical development, Amartya Sen is being mentioned who defines development as “freedom” in terms of the individuals as a “growth and progress oriented self”. Finally the authors suppose that an institutionalisation of a countervailing power should be the key objective as that would lead to more equality and sustainability in areas like economics, politics and culture.
MichelleRaab - 16. Mai, 00:00
Freitag, 9. März 2007
Group B: Alternative Theories of Socioeconomic Development
In order to keep a certain system and tidiness, please post all your contributions related to this topic in this section.
Thomas Bernhardt - 9. Mär, 14:10
