Critical Pedagogy and the Birmingham School on the Temporality of “Anticipatory Economies”

• In Event: Critical Pedagogy: New Philosophical Interventions

Abstract

What educational methods deepen democracy? What institutional and curricular strategies might affect democratic change? This presentation argues that Critical Pedagogy and the Birmingham School work from a shared belief: the task of critical research is to plant seeds so that social “discourses” promote social parity. I argue that both traditions similarly interpret a core tenet of cultural Marxism that social and political changes occur most sustainably in the superstructural sphere, among belief systems and identity formation. An examination of Michael Apple and Raymond Williams’ works reveals similar strategies for identifying and promoting democratic principles. Both argue for focused attention on the problem of “temporality”, which in Williams’ work is defined as holding “residual”, “emergent”, and “dominant” dimensions. By identifying when changes in perspective might occur, and how discursive groups respond to and adjust to those changes, critical scholarship can influence the next shifts in social formation.

Central to both Apple’s approach and Williams’ approach is the distinction between “determinants” and “determination.” In Williams’ view, determinants apply historical “limits and pressures” upon contours of future discursive formation. Cultural discourses are positioned by and position themselves in relation to a constellation of circulating determinants, and select and apply circulating information to their political outlooks. Circulating meanings can be assessed, or mapped, among other coherent belief systems for strategic intervention.

Developing tactics for political intervention requires sophisticated literacy of cultural institutional practices, leading Apple to enjoin critical researchers to work as “secretaries for social movements”. This view has led Apple to recently argue for “strategic alliance” tactics as an application of cultural mapping to the temporality field of discursive selection. A constructive pairing of Critical Pedagogy and Cultural Studies results in an approach to critical analysis not focused on resistance to hegemonic dominance, but tactical possibilities for discursive emergence.

This presentation further argues that both disciplines might come into further conversation by complicating and extending Williams’ analysis of temporality. As stated, his model lacks an empirical method to identify “cause” for discursive adjustment and adaptation to social phenomena. This can be corrected by accounting for why otherwise disconnected groups come into contact. I argue that this can be understood by looking to overlapping ways that groups have envisioned solutions to reconcile social contradictions. When multiple groups declare fidelity to a shared solution-based model, an anticipatory economy emerges. Second, the concept of “discourse” is too often assumed to be a static body, when in fact its core characteristic—emergence—intimates a dynamic level of reflexivity. By reframing the concept of “discourse” so that it might identify various stages of temporal emergence, from identification of social contradictions to fully circulating institutional strategies, critical research will more accurately be able to account for sites of tactical intervention.

Author

• Josh Shepperd, The Catholic University of America