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Estranged but not Alienated: A Precondition of Critical Educational Theory
Author(s) -
Papastephanou Marianna
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of philosophy of education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.501
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9752
pISSN - 0309-8249
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9752.00210
Subject(s) - alienation , confusion , precondition , adaptability , epistemology , janus , sociology , social psychology , social alienation , psychology , environmental ethics , psychoanalysis , political science , philosophy , law , management , economics , materials science , computer science , programming language , nanotechnology
Alienation is a double‐edged concept adaptable to both positive and negative or critical accounts of the individual, culture and society. It is also elastic enough to describe very different economical and cultural effects, and thus it is a potential source of confusion and inconsistency. Alienation is characterised by a Janus‐faced adaptability to both neutral/positive and negative uses: the former may be considered as endemic, the latter as historical. In some respects alienation is neither avoidable in education nor wholly undesirable.