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Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons - Pursuing Democracy's Promise through Place-Based Activism (Hardcover)
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Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons - Pursuing Democracy's Promise through Place-Based Activism (Hardcover)
Series: Polis: Fordham Series in Urban Studies
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A rare and powerful illustration of what it takes to become a
sustainable, community-embedded organization that continuously
grows the next generation of compassionate leaders This essential,
timely book meets us at our current moment of crisis to offer hope
that American democracy's stalled trajectory toward its founding
creed to embrace all, and not just some, can indeed be
reinvigorated. Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons is about low-income
youth of color working within justice-oriented, community-based
organizations to improve the social and spatial conditions in their
surroundings. It draws from hundreds of pages of data, some
collected over a decade ago by graduate research assistants at
three universities and some collected recently by a graduate
research assistant at a fourth university, to present verbatim
quotes from interviews with constituents of three youth-serving
organizations. The book posits that the disinvested neighborhoods
where youth experience abandonment and marginality in fact can
serve as a call to action, given appropriate organizational
support. Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons envisions a place-based
critical pedagogy that can prepare young people with the practical
skills and deep values to engage with today's economic, racial, and
ecological crises. It offers a welcome antidote to a neoliberal
education system that has not only veered away from its public
mandate to advance democratic citizenship but that has also
reinforced today's insidious economic inequality, rendering
illusive the idea that rich and poor can work together toward a
common good. Between these pages resonate a passionate call for an
approach to cultivating citizens who have the critical skills to
challenge injustice, the courage to hold the rich and powerful
accountable, and the empathy to advance, not just their own
self-interest, but the health and well-being of their communities
and the planet. The author proposes that such citizens develop by
exercising collective agency in "the commons," a political and
psychic space whose values are mapped out in physical space.
Through the expert use of an architect's lens, this groundbreaking
book argues that the three-dimensional concreteness of the nation's
disinvested neighborhoods provides a literal stage where
disenfranchised youth can experiment with collective life, become
more discerning about the forces that have shaped their
communities, and practice working toward just and inclusive
futures. Merging Paolo Freire's seminal theory of critical pedagogy
with Grace Lee Boggs's belief that hands-on community-building can
disrupt the evermore destructive forces of neoliberal capitalism,
Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons refines an aspirational framework for
a pathway forward through a careful analysis of three exemplar
organizations. it offers rich, unique portraits of young people
transforming their communities in Southwest Detroit, Wai'anae, and
Harlem, respectively illustrating place-based activism through
theatre, organic farming, and critical inquiry. Here activism is
framed as the hands-on engagement of youth in addressing inequities
in the commons of their neighborhoods through small but persistent
interventions, which also help them learn the language of
solidarity and collectivity that a sustainable democracy needs. A
Pedagogy of Hope is a must-read for our times and for our future.
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