A Sketch of a Humane Education: A Capability Approach Perspective

Poverty, understood as basic capability deprivation, can only be solved through a process of expanding the freedoms that people value and have reason to value. This process can only begin if the capability to imagine and aspire for an altenative lifestyle worthy of human dignity is cultivated by an education program that develops both the capability to reason and to value. These two facets play a major role in the creative exercise of human agency. This program of humane education can only come from an adequate description of the human agent as a persona that seeks to actualize itself based on his/her understanding of the good. Education must therefore seek to cultivate the capability to have an adequate conception of the good (normative) as well as the capability to constantly re-evaluate one’s conception of the good (evaluative) in order to freely and reasonably choose a life that one values and has reason to value. Education must therefore entail not merely the development of skills nor specialization in a particular field but must concentrate on the integration of the human person as a whole which leads to self-creative praxis

Exploring the Potential of Developmental Work Research and Change Laboratory to Support Sustainability Transformations:A Case Study of Organic Agriculture in Zimbabwe

This paper explores the emergence of transgressive learning in CHAT-informed development work research in a networked organic agriculture case study in Zimbabwe, based on intervention research involving district organic associations tackling interconnected issues of climate change, water, food security and solidarity. The study established that We change laboratories can be used to support transgressive learning through: confronting unproductive local norms; collective reframing of problematic issues; stimulating expansive learning and sustainability transformations in minds, relationships and landscapes across time. The study also confirms the need for fourth generation CHAT to address the complex social-ecological problems of today

Meadian reflections on the existential ambivalence of human selfhood

This paper examines the existential ambivalence of human selfhood by drawing upon George Herbert Mead’s distinction between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’. In order to make a case for the centrality of this conceptual distinction, the paper offers a comprehensive account of a variety of different meanings which the notions of the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ are given in Mead’s analysis of the self. The distinction between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ has been extensively discussed in the literature, but neither supporters nor detractors of Mead’s symbolic interactionism have provided a detailed study of its multifaceted significance for the constitution of selfhood. The paper seeks to demonstrate that Mead’s analytical separation between the ‘I’ and the ‘me’ allows us to shed light on the multilayered ambivalence of the human self, that is, on the existential significance of various opposing forces which pervade every ordinary subject’s relation to the world

institutional innovation from the bottom up?

A sustainable economy fulfills societal needs in a fundamentally different way to the current economic system. Improvements to the efficiency of existing technologies or practices appear insufficient for achieving sustainable development within the planetary boundaries. Disruptive, systemic and transformational changes appear necessary in order to replace existing technologies and practices to establish a sustainable economy. Such innovations often start out in niches; however, the scaling up and the ultimate replacement of current socio-technical systems requires governance to allow for the coordination of actors, the reorganization of socio-technical systems and the mobilization and allocation of resources. As governmental institutions are part of the current (non-sustainable) systems and thereby fail to provide coherent, integrated and transformative governance, we explore whether institutional innovation from non-state actors can step in to provide governance of transformation processes. Based on explorative qualitative case studies of networks in the food sector, city planning and reporting tools, we analyze the potential of bottom-up institutional innovations to coordinate actors in transformation processes

“Doing something that’s really important”: meaningful engagement for teachers as a resource for transformative work with student writers in the disciplines.

[About the book] The editors and contributors to this collection explore what it means to adopt an "academic literacies" approach in policy and pedagogy. Transformative practice is illustrated through case studies and critical commentaries from teacher-researchers working in a range of higher education contexts—from undergraduate to postgraduate levels, across disciplines, and spanning geopolitical regions including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cataluña, Finland, France, Ireland, Portugal, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Key questions addressed include: How can a wider range of semiotic resources and technologies fruitfully serve academic meaning and knowledge making? What kinds of writing spaces do we need and how can these be facilitated? How can theory and practice from "Academic Literacies" be used to open up debate about writing pedagogy at institutional and policy levels

Transformative Agroecology Learning in Europe: Building Consciousness, Skills and Collective Capacity for Food Sovereignty

Agroecology has been proposed as a key building block for food sovereignty. This article examines the meaning, practices and potentials of ‘transformative agroecology learning’ as a collective strategy for food system transformation. Our study is based on our qualitative and action research with the European Coordination of Via Campesina to develop the European Agroecology Knowledge Exchange Network (EAKEN). This network is linked to the global network of La Via Campesina and builds on the strong experiences and traditions of popular education in Latin American peasant movements. Rather than focusing on agroecology education as a process of individual learning, we analyse how a transformative agroecology education can be strengthened as a critical repertoire of action used by social movements to advance food sovereignty. Our analysis contributes a new theory of transformative agroecology learning based on four key characteristics or qualities: horizontalism; diálogo de saberes (wisdom dialogues); combining practical and political knowledge; and building social movement networks. While these different elements of transformative agroecology learning were present across EAKEN, they were unevenly developed and, in many cases, not systematized. The framework can help to strategically and reflexively systematize and strengthen a transformative agroecology learning approach as a key building block for food sovereignty

Low-temperature chemistry using the R-matrix method

Techniques for producing cold and ultracold molecules are enabling the study of chemical reactions and scattering at the quantum scattering limit, with only a few partial waves contributing to the incident channel, leading to the observation and even full control of state-to-state collisions in this regime. A new R-matrix formalism is presented for tackling problems involving low- and ultra-low energy collisions. This general formalism is particularly appropriate for slow collisions occurring on potential energy surfaces with deep wells. The many resonance states make such systems hard to treat theoretically but offer the best prospects for novel physics: resonances are already being widely used to control diatomic systems and should provide the route to steering ultracold reactions. Our R-matrix-based formalism builds on the progress made in variational calculations of molecular spectra by using these methods to provide wavefunctions for the whole system at short internuclear distances, (a regime known as the inner region). These wavefunctions are used to construct collision energy-dependent R-matrices which can then be propagated to give cross sections at each collision energy. The method is formulated for ultracold collision systems with differing numbers of atoms.Comment: Presented at Faraday Discussion on the Theory of Chemical Reactions Published in Faraday Discussion

Potentialities and constraints in the relation between social innovation and public policies: some lessons from South America

Social innovation (SI) can offer alternative forms of organization and novel solutions to complex problems faced by contemporary societies. As governments face increasing pressures from mounting societal challenges, it is assumed that SI can provide bottom-up solutions in ways that can create transformative change. However, the dialectic relation between bottom-up initiatives and government can be difficult and sometimes contradictory. Even more, assumptions about the diminishing powers of government can be misleading and overstress the role of SI. Based on the study of the recent South American experience, we have departed from this assumption, seeking to understand what the role of public policies as initiators or supporters of SI could be. We analyzed two top-down initiatives promoted by public policies that ultimately fostered SI in Argentina, the subsistence agriculture “Pro-Huerta” program and the policies of the National Technology and Social Innovation Program, and one complementary case study of a bottom-up SI experience in Brazil, the One Million Cisterns Program, which was later inserted into public policies. Together, these cases have allowed us to understand the potentialities and limitations of SI and the kind of dialectic relations they established with public policies. In particular, we have considered how public policies can foster and support SI.Fil: Gordon, Ariel. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Departamento de Economía y Administracion; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Becerra, Lucas Dardo. Universidad Nacional de Quilmes. Centro de Estudios e Investigación. Instituto de Estudios Sobre la Ciencia y Tecnología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Fressoli, Juan Mariano. Centro de Investigaciones para la Transformación; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin