Dewey in the 21st Century: Some of the Ways that Dewey Resonates in Contemporary Times
While discussing John Dewey's landmark text with Steph and Erin (my friends/peers/colleagues), we started wondering about the possibilities of connecting his ideas to our available technologies could open pathways to some of the key ideas Dewey leaves us with at the end of the book: "We lie, as Emerson said, in the lap of an immense intelligence. But that intelligence is dormant and its communications are broken, in articulate and faint until it possess the local community as its medium" (160). How can our local and global technical advances contribute to strengthening communities? How could they weaken them? How else may they affect us?
We started exploring these ideas via a Pinterest board, each contributing ideas, images, and links. For example, Steph considered North Carolina's Amendment One, saying, "In 2012, our state did the unconscionable, using its power to restrict instead of protect the rights of its citizens. This was a huge step backwards in NC, but now the federal courts are reversing these unethical laws and they are falling like dominos" and Super PACs as creating "publics from dollar, dollar bills instead of an assembly of bodies. They are a real threat to the process of organic public and state-making in the 21st century." Erin connected Dewey's discussion on ideas and bodies and to writing center spaces and related his ideas of the relationships between publics, states, and citizens to a protest poster reading, "You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out."
Check out our board, and add your own ideas if you would like.
We started exploring these ideas via a Pinterest board, each contributing ideas, images, and links. For example, Steph considered North Carolina's Amendment One, saying, "In 2012, our state did the unconscionable, using its power to restrict instead of protect the rights of its citizens. This was a huge step backwards in NC, but now the federal courts are reversing these unethical laws and they are falling like dominos" and Super PACs as creating "publics from dollar, dollar bills instead of an assembly of bodies. They are a real threat to the process of organic public and state-making in the 21st century." Erin connected Dewey's discussion on ideas and bodies and to writing center spaces and related his ideas of the relationships between publics, states, and citizens to a protest poster reading, "You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out."
Check out our board, and add your own ideas if you would like.