Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons: Pursuing Democracy's Promise through Place-Based Activism

Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons is a book that explores how low-income youth of color can work within justice-oriented, community-based organizations to improve the social and spatial conditions in their surroundings. It draws from hundreds of pages of data to present verbatim quotes from interviews with constituents of three youth-serving organizations and proposes a place-based critical pedagogy that can provide young people with the practical skills and deep values to engage with today's economic, racial, and ecological crises. The author argues that the three-dimensional concreteness of the nation's disinvested neighborhoods provides a virtual stage where disenfranchised youth can experiment with collective life, become more discerning about the forces that have shaped their communities, and practice working toward just and inclusive futures.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 06 June 2023
Publisher: Fordham University Press

Pedagogy of a Beloved Commons is a vital and timely book that addresses the current crisis facing American democracy and offers hope for its revival. The book draws on extensive data collected over a decade and recently by graduate research assistants at four universities to present verbatim quotes from interviews with constituents of three youth-serving organizations. It posits that disinvested neighborhoods where youth experience abandonment and marginality can serve as a call to action, given appropriate organizational support. The book envisions a place-based critical pedagogy that can provide young people with the practical skills and deep values to engage with today's economic, racial, and ecological crises. It offers a welcome antidote to a neoliberal education system that has veered away from its public mandate to advance democratic citizenship and reinforced today's insidious economic inequality. The book calls for an approach to cultivating citizens who have the critical skills to challenge injustice and the courage to hold the rich and powerful accountable.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781531502812