From Radical Marxism to Knowledge Socialism

This volume examines the place of Marxist theory in the history of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory, primarily through the selection and exploration of typical and significant articles exploring Marxist-related themes in the journal over time. The title, From Radical Marxism to Knowledge Socialism, reflects this historical approach. In the 1960s and 1970s, Marxism was considered to be a radical, extreme 'political' theory, while western liberalism and a free-market economy were largely taken for granted as natural phenomena, in western philosophy of education and in the journal. More recently, educational theorists have begun to explore trends related to the neoliberal age. Paradoxically, such trends include the move toward knowledge socialism, which decenters the normative presuppositions of knowledge capitalism as the latest iteration of western liberalism. The volume begins with an introductory chapter that examines the history of Marxism in western philosophy and philosophy of education. The rest of the book features works selected from the journal that further illustrate the evolution of Marxist theoretical perspectives in the field over time. This collection thus gives a sense of the range and extent of Marxist-inspired thinking in educational philosophy and theory. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of educational philosophy and theory and others who are interested in exploring in depth the evolution of key themes in this field over time, including liberalism, ideology, Marxism, neoliberalism, knowledge construction, capitalist and socialist schooling, and other aspects of economic analysis in education.

Michael A. Peters is Distinguished Professor of Education at Beijing Normal University and Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois. He is the Executive Editor of the journal Educational Philosophy and Theory. His interests are in education, philosophy and social policy, and he is the author of over 100 books, including The Chinese Dream: Educating the Future (2019), Wittgenstein, Education and Rationality (2020) and Wittgenstein: Antifoundationalism, Technoscience and Education (2020). Liz Jackson is Professor of Education at the Education University of Hong Kong. She is also the Immediate Past President of the Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia and the former Director of the Comparative Education Research Centre at the University of Hong Kong. Her interests are in philosophy of education, moral philosophy, and global studies. She is the author of Muslims and Islam in US Education: Reconsidering Multiculturalism (2014), Questioning Allegiance: Resituating Civic Education (2019) and Beyond Virtue: The Politics of Educating Emotions (2020).

Introduction: Western Marxism in Educational Philosophy and Theory 1. Ideology and Schooling 2. Marxism and Education: Will the Doctrine Bear the Weight? 3. Education and Cultural Disadvantage 4. Illich and Anarchism 5. Knowledge and Ideology in the Marxist Philosophy of Education 6. Liberal Education and Social Change 7. The Continuing Conflicts Between Capitalism and Democracy: Ramifications for Schooling 8. Luce Irigaray: Women becoming subjects for a divine economy 9. The Nature and Limits of Critical Theory in Education 10. Class Dismissed? Historical materialism and the politics of 'difference' 11. A Brief Commentary on the Hegelian-Marxist Origins of Gramsci's 'Philosophy of Praxis' 12. Hope, political imagination, and agency in Marxism and beyond: Explicating the transformative worldview and ethico-ontoepistemology 13. Knowledge socialism: the rise of peer production - collegiality, collaboration, and collective intelligence