Democracy, Citizenship and Education: From Socialisation to Subjectification

Abstract

In this paper I discuss the nature of citizenship, the role of education and learning, and its connection with the public sphere. I ask whether we should understand citizenship as a social or a political identity, and show the risks of reducing democratic citizenship to issues of social cohesion and integration. I ask whether we should understand democracy as 'arche' (a definable order) or 'an-arche' (as fundamentally beyond order). I highlight the importance of understanding democracy in political rather than natural terms, and show the dangers of understanding democracy exclusively in terms of a definable socio-political order. I then introduce a distinction between two conceptions of civic learning: civic learning as socialisation and civic learning as subjectification, and argue for the importance of learning that is connected to engagement with the experiment of democracy. I highlight the experimental nature of democracy by emphasising that democracy should not be understood as the counting of individual preferences but as the transformation of individual 'wants' into collectively justifiable and supportable 'needs.' Against this background I suggest that the public sphere should not be understood as the arena in which such transformational processes take place, but that the very enactment of such a transformation creates moments of publicness that are fundamentally different from personal relations and market relations. I conclude by arguing that the alleged crisis in democracy should not be understood as a lack of the civic qualities of individuals but rather has to do with the lack of real democratic opportunities in which citizens can enact their democratic subjectivity.