The Polyphonic Embodied Self and Educational Organization: A Case of Theory Transplantation

Building on Bakhtin’s theories of polyphony and carnival, the article develops the concept of the polyphonic embodied self and uses it to suggest ways of rethinking educational organizations. The article examines a special relation of individual to the collective body, inspired by the grotesque body as a natural part of carnival time in the Middle ages, also allowing for resistance. Carnival creates parallel utopian human communities – and the basis for dreams. The unofficial world was marked by anti-power, by breaking taboos, and the ambivalent laughter culture was essential in the chaotic, but united multi-voiced body of carnival. According to Bakhtin’s dialogic approach, organizations can be viewed as systems of relations among individuals and with the world. The authors treat this as a case of transplanting a theory into a non-native context and reflect on what could be the rules for such an application.acceptedVersio

Redefinition of Plurality

The notion of \u27double message\u27 is commonly perceived as a negative one in the educational context. Many believe that an educational institution, and even better, a whole community, must convey a consistent moral message to the youth. This paper aims to show that the consistency of a message is not always good, and that truly educational moral message is always a double message, an ambivalent and a self-contradicting one. To preserve the polyphony of a moral message, I argue, is more important than to observe the cohesion of such a message

Dialogue with Evil

This paper is a direct result of comments Dr. Barbara Thayer-Bacon gave me on one of my previous papers. I have been exploring possible implications of Mikhail Bakhtin\u27s notions of dialogue and polyphony for educational theory. The assumption I borrowed from Bakhtin is that dialogue is the end and everything else in a means. In other words, Bakhtin seemed to reject any absolutes with the exception of dialogical relation. I thought, and still do now, that this is a very productive idea, and that dialogue understood as a relation can effectively describe something very central to human existence. Among other things, I suggested that education must foster a student\u27s ability to hear a multitude of human voices, and maintain internal dialogue. To do this, one must develop an ability not only to attend to the other in dialogue, but also to maintain and strengthen the other\u27s argument. To maintain an ability of moral judgement, one has to keep one\u27s enemy very much alive, both as a viable partner of dialogue, and as an internal voice within

In the Event of Learning

This is an essay in four movements: it begins with Marx\u27s notion on alienation, and then shows a form of alienation specific to education. The third movement examines Mikhail Bakhtin\u27s treatment of alienation in connection with his participative thinking theory, and the final one suggests ways of overcoming educational alienation based on Bakhtin\u27s notion of eventness of Being. The purpose of this exercise is not to bring Bakhtin into educational theory for the sake of simply enlarging the discussion. Rather, I worry about directions taken by contemporary critiques of education

On the Essence of Education

This is a contribution to the project of redefining the educational theory as a discipline, not merely as a field for application of other disciplines. If educational theory is a discipline, it should provide a unique lens to view the entire social world. Educational theory would then not only contemplate the world of schooling, or even the expanded world of educational experiences outside of schools. It would also offer an insight on the educational aspects of the economy, of politics, of communication, of culture, etc. Zooming out away from schooling allows zooming in on educatio

Biodynamic parameters of micellar diminazene in sheep erythrocytes and blood plasma

In this work, we used a preparation of diminazene, which belongs to the group of aromatic diamidines. This compound acts on the causative agents of blood protozoan diseases produced by both flagellated protozoa (Trypanosoma) and members of the class Piroplasmida (Babesia, Theileria, and Cytauxzoon) in various domestic and wild animals, and it is widely used in veterinary medicine. We examined the behavior of water-disperse diminazene (immobilized in Tween 80 micelles) at the cellular and organismal levels. We assessed the interaction of an aqueous and a water-disperse preparation with cells of the reticuloendothelial system. We compared the kinetic parameters of aqueous and water-disperse diminazene in sheep erythrocytes and plasma. The therapeutic properties of these two preparations were also compared. We found that the surface-active substances improved intracellular penetration of the active substance through interaction with the cell membrane. In sheep blood erythrocytes, micellar diminazene accumulated more than its aqueous analog. This form was also more effective therapeutically than the aqueous analog. Our findings demonstrate that use of micellar diminazene allows the injection dose to be reduced by 30%

The twilight of the Liberal Social Contract? On the Reception of Rawlsian Political Liberalism

This chapter discusses the Rawlsian project of public reason, or public justification-based 'political' liberalism, and its reception. After a brief philosophical rather than philological reconstruction of the project, the chapter revolves around a distinction between idealist and realist responses to it. Focusing on political liberalism’s critical reception illuminates an overarching question: was Rawls’s revival of a contractualist approach to liberal legitimacy a fruitful move for liberalism and/or the social contract tradition? The last section contains a largely negative answer to that question. Nonetheless the chapter's conclusion shows that the research programme of political liberalism provided and continues to provide illuminating insights into the limitations of liberal contractualism, especially under conditions of persistent and radical diversity. The programme is, however, less receptive to challenges to do with the relative decline of the power of modern states

Constitutivism

A brief explanation and overview of constitutivism