Democratic Education in an Armed Society: Learning to Live with Guns

Democratic Education in an Armed Society explores the connection between school gun violence and democratic education, tracing conversations about agency and mastery in the archives of liberalism, pragmatism, and new materialism. Samantha Deane suggests that we learn to attend to the ways in which our ability to act in the world is shared and distributed and that the future of associational life depends on whether we learn to do democracy with the objects we hold dear.

Format: Unspecified
Length: 152 pages
Publication date: 15 November 2023
Publisher: Lexington Books

Democratic Education in an Armed Society delves into the intricate connections between school gun violence and democratic education. By tracing conversations about agency and mastery within the archives of liberalism, pragmatism, and new materialism, Samantha Deane explores the profound relationship between how we teach children to perceive themselves as democratic actors and the persistent issue of gun violence. Through juxtaposing two contrasting images of political agency, Deane establishes a link between an essentialized notion of humans as masters of themselves, objects, and history and discourses aimed at training individuals to become autonomous and rational users of objects such as guns. This liberal perspective, she argues, fails to provide a framework for understanding how objects, narratives, and norms shape the selves we claim to be.

In response, Deane offers an alternative perspective. She proposes that we cultivate a sense of awareness regarding the ways in which our ability to act in the world is shared and distributed. In a society deeply entrenched in individualism and gun culture, the future of associational life hinges on our ability to embrace democracy with the objects that hold deep significance for us. This necessitates a profound reckoning with our inherent betweenness and dedicated efforts to educate children to think while immersed in the intricate web of human + gun interactions.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781666933444