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Modernity and the Problem of Cultural Pluralism
Author(s) -
BLAKE NIGEL
Publication year - 1992
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/j.1467-9752.1992.tb00263.x
Subject(s) - modernization theory , rationality , modernity , pluralism (philosophy) , institutionalisation , traditionalism , sociology , environmental ethics , cultural pluralism , curriculum , western culture , social science , political economy , epistemology , political science , law , pedagogy , philosophy , humanities
A curriculum that reflects a pluralist, multi‐cultural society in a characteristically ‘Western’ way may seem to militate against traditionalist sub‐cultures, but this outcome is less ‘Western’ than ‘modern’, in Habermas's sense.‘Modernisation’, involving the institutionalisation of rationality and the decentering of consciousness, and thus acceptance of the ‘Western’ solution, is possible within any culture, regardless of its content. In a Western society all are economically compelled to a partial ‘modernisation’, and in Habermas's view all cultures in modern societies suffer erosion by the extension and intrusion of economic and administrative sub‐systems. Cultural modernisation affords the strongest available resistance to this erosion. Thus, a supposedly ‘Western’ curriculum approach would strengthen sub‐cultures, notwithstanding the demise of traditionalism [1].