Feats of Strength for Weak Utopianism: Giorgio Agamben,Educational Potentiality and the Studious Spatiality of the Active Learning Classroom

One outcome of the increasing interest from philosophy of education circles in the work of Giorgio Agamben has been the possibility of apparently small alterations to enact a radical emancipatory change. This ‘weak utopianism’ (Lewis, 2013) found in Agamben's work means that traditionally radical changes are viewed with skepticism, as grand alternative designs often merely result in the operationalisation and actualisation of new ordering rather emancipation. In a recent commentary on Agamben's philosophy of education, Igor Jasinski (2018) argues that the theory of weak utopianism means that innovative classroom designs ‘should not be considered’ examples of Agambenian philosophy of education at work. In this article, I respond through an analysis of the case of active learning classrooms. Despite existing as a form of innovative classroom design, I argue that they nevertheless abide Agambenian principles in the philosophy of education as spaces open to—without demanding—study. The active learning classroom is not the ideal‐type studious space but a paradigm, the case that stands outside of (while standing in for) the rest of the set. Situated in‐between inspiration and implementation, I argue that active learning classrooms are the paradoxically strongest form of weak utopianism, leaving educational potentiality open while also representing a significant rethinking of the spatiality of the classroom. Active learning classrooms thus pose significant questions both for Agambenian philosophy of education in particular and critical pedagogy in general.     

Kant versus the Managers: Historical Reconstruction and the Modern University

This paper examines the role of normative ideals in contemporary critiques of the university. It begins by suggesting that the normative ideal of the university advanced by Immanuel Kant in The Conflict of the Faculties is particularly relevant to current critiques, as exemplified by a manifesto produced at the University of Aberdeen entitled ‘Reclaiming our University’. The second portion of the paper notes that such critiques cannot however encompass all aspects of the modern university. The paper thus concludes that a Kantian framework enables a narrower, but more powerful critique of New Public Management, which foregrounds issues of legitimate conflict within the university and its institutional reproduction over time instead of speaking to broader concerns about the university's civic/humanist origins     

这里是3月3点钟的北京物资学院

正我去通州之前和曾丽欣通了电话,在北京的东轴线上——三点钟方向——当她告诉我怎么去她学校时我有点惊讶,要去北京物资学院,要先坐新开通的地铁6号线,这是我第一次坐6号线,这也使得我的"远东"之行显得非常方便。我到达最后一站的时候,换乘了一辆公交车,一路向东的过程中,我对着物资学院的标识左右张望,不过只看到一堆堆沙子和石头,我看到许多尚未完工的建筑以及巨大的水泥搅     

The nature of virtual organizations and their anticipated social and psychological impacts

Virtual organizations are goal-driven associations of intellectual agents working within the information space. The development of virtual organizations and their agents is a natural continuation of the long movement in western society towards organizing for efficient commerce and communication. For at least 800 years cities and traditional organizations fulfilled these purposes, but now with the advent of high-speed communication and rich interconnectivity, a general diaspora of commerce and education may be expected. All of the technology needed to nurture the rise of virtual organizations is in place, albeit in a primitive form. The authors argue that in the next decade this technology will reach such a level of sophistication that traditional universities and schools with their massive physical assets will no longer be sustainable, and will be replaced by virtual organizations delivering education and training with a minimum of physical infrastructure