학술논문

DEEPER DEMOCRACY THROUGH COMMUNITY LEARNING: FROM EDUCATION TO EMPOWERMENT.
Document Type
Article
Source
Policy & Practice: A Development Education Review; 2023, Issue 36, p114-135, 22p
Subject
Transformative learning
Learning communities
Federal government
Developing countries
Democracy
Self-efficacy
Social capital
Women's empowerment
Iran
Language
ISSN
1748135X
Abstract
Following the assumption that the levels of education and social capital are good predictors of democratisation (Barro, 1999; Glaeser, Ponzetto and Shleifer, 2007), many development agencies have promoted a depoliticised education in the global South toward enhancing the individual skills of citizens who would, in turn, find their own ways to promote democracy and sustainable development in their countries. However, the persistence and resurrection of authoritarianism and unbalanced development in both the global South and North (Diamond, 2015) necessitates revisiting education. Based on our experience and research on the role of learning to reduce regional imbalances and to revive marginalised places, as well as pragmatic planning initiatives in neighbourhood development in Iran, we seek to propose an alternative approach to learning for development. Our alternative approach goes beyond the individual adaptive learning conventionally recommended to the South and proposes experiences of individual transformative and community-based reflexive learning processes that would directly contribute to empowering the local community, building local capabilities, lowering inequalities, and strengthening the foundations of democratic institutions at the local level. disappointment about electoral democracy paved the way for the extreme right to take over local and national governments leading to the recent countermovement in Autumn 2022. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]