conflict & communication online, Vol. 21, No. 2, 2022
www.cco.regener-online.de
ISSN 1618-0747

 

 


Introduction

 

 

 

Global solidarity and responsibility

Paulo Freire is still recognized as a pioneer and source of inspiration for many progressive approaches in educational science and pedagogical practice. With the dialogic-situational didactics he developed in the 1950s, adults could be helped to achieve literacy in just a few weeks. This was not just a matter of the basic technical acquisition of reading and writing skills. The fundamental interest was rather to disrupt the 'culture of silence', where oppression is perpetuated, and to establish a 'culture of dialogue' in which opportunities for social change could evolve. Freire reflected on this form of  social consciousness raising, i.a. in his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Published in Brazil in 1970, it earned him a worldwide reputation as a critical educator, educational theorist and social activist. 
While his work originally addressed the struggle against poverty, illiteracy and oppression in economically deprived countries around the world, it also inspires alternative/unconventional thinking about the global present. On the one hand, globalization and digitalization enable transnational communication, but on the other hand, as a result of neoliberal reforms, social disparities are becoming more severe worldwide, and crisis events such as wars, environmental catastrophes, and pandemics are reshaping all areas of contemporary life. Freire's efforts to transform education into a practice of liberation are thus more relevant than ever before!
This thematic issue Global Solidarity and Responsibility resulted from the conference "Solidarity in the global society. Dialogue and liberation in a digital future" (October 14-16, 2021), held at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg on the occasion of Paulo Freire's 100th birthday.
The contributions all draw on central concepts of the influential social scientist from Brazil in pursuing solutions for current social problems. Freire's critical examination of social reality, his objections to the 'culture of silence' and the 'banking concept' that dominate the educational system, the emancipatory concepts of problem-centered, dialogic learning and consciousness (conscientização) that arose in this context, his radical critique of the existing capitalist system shaped by postcolonialism and neoliberalism, and not least his commitment to global solidarity and justice offer numerous theoretical and practical impulses. Inspired by these, the following essays critically examine various contemporary societal processes − they open up new scientific perspectives on education, social integration, precarity, migration and social work.

Critical Adult Education & Integration Research

Christine Zeuner focuses in her essay on 'social competences' as a concept of critical political adult education, following Oskar Negt. Based on biographical contextualizations of his person, she explains 'social competences', and examines the question of what relevance these, especially 'justice competences', have today.
Jan Skrobanek and Solvejg Jobst reflect in their article on the methodological implications of operationalizing and measuring 'liquid integration'. Drawing on Freire's socio-critical diagnosis of the sectarian production of a 'predetermined future', they emphasize the genuinely processual and continuous character of social integration and thus encourage critical debate on methodological issues in integration research.

PrecarityFlight & MigrationSocial Work

The subject of child poverty is examined by Dominik Novkovic in terms of educational theory. The author discusses the necessity of a new contour of social work as socio-critical political education in the light of current challenges. In this respect, he addresses the question(s) of how education is to be understood with reference to Paulo Freire's pedagogical approach of liberation and what it implies for educational social work.
Georgia Manafi, Angeliki Manafi and Wassilios Baros report on two studies of precarious populations in Greece. They use latent class analysis to identify attitudes towards social injustice among people in precarious employment situations. From the perspective of critical pedagogy, they discuss the extent to which precarity can be seen as a motor for solidarity and social change.
Aida Kell-Delić, Ioannis Kourtis and Wassilios Baros explore, based on a study of extended reality technologies, the concept of 'critical literacy' in the context of migration research. By means of latent class analysis, they address the question of how much augmented reality and virtual reality can add to our critical understanding and reading of social phenomena, using the example of refugee migration.
Tanja Kleibl and Nikos Xypolytas discuss the role of social work in connection with insights from the refugee crisis on Greek islands. Drawing on the ideas of Antonio Gramsci and Latin American liberation theorists, they argue for an active political coalition between social workers and refugees.

Salzburg, October 2022

Aida Kell-Delic, Miriam Hannig, Wassilios Baros, Solvejg Jobst, Joachim Schroeder & Jutta Lütjen

The guest editors: Aida Kell-Delić is University assistant and doctoral candidate at the Department of Educational Science at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg and member of the Project Group Empirical Migration Research Salzburg (PREMISA). Her research focuses on educational migration research, heritage language education and biographical educational processes in the context of migration.
eMail: aida.kell-delic@plus.ac.at

Miriam Hannig is doctoral candidate at the Department of Educational Science at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg and primary school teacher. Her research interests include diversity-sensitive and racism-critical school and education policy, historical learning in early childhood education, and historical culture.
eMail: miriam.hannig@stud.sbg.ac.at

Wassilios Baros is Professor of education research at the Paris Lodron University Salzburg and directs the Project Group Empirical Migration Research (PREMISA). His research interests include educational research relating to migration politics, latent style analysis of communication cultures and recipient research.
eM ail: wassilios.baros@plus.ac.at 

Solvejg Jobst is Professor of education and academic leader of the ph.d.-program ‘Studies of Bildung and pedagogical practices’ at the Faculty of Education, Arts and Sports, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences. Before she worked as a professor for International and Intercultural Education Research at Magdeburg University in Germany. She is publishing and doing research in the fields of teaching profession, intercultural/international education, social justice education and research methodology.
eMail: solvejg.jobst@hvl.no

Joachim Schroeder is Professor of Education with a focus on learning barriers at the University of Hamburg. Main research interests: Learning under conditions of poverty, migration and flight, community-oriented school development, educational reforms in Latin America and in Islamic countries, literacy and basic education of young people and adults.
eMail: Joachim.Schroeder@uni-hamburg.de

Jutta Lütjen is a doctor of philosophy, graduated social pedagogue, graduated pedagogue, supervisor, coach, organizational consultant, systemic family therapist, yoga teacher and yoga therapist. Her teaching, working and research interests: Socraticism, Maieutics, Dialogical Learning, Anthropology, Appropriation and Education Processes, Raising Consciousness, Pedagogy of Liberation, Heterogeneity and Differentiation, Systemic Interventions, Communication.
eMail: luetjen@panta-rhei.email Website: https://userpages.uni-koblenz.de/~luetjen/


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