Abstract
Teaching critical thinking skills beyond a formulaic, positivist set of questions is a central challenge in radical political economy and critical geography. Grounded in historical consciousness and a quest for human emancipation, critical thinking emerges as part of praxis, the reflective combination of theory and practice. Drawing on Gramsci and Freire, this paper presents the example of the Bucknell Brigades in which students learn about community based initiatives and work with an NGO grounded in community defined projects. The Brigades push the boundaries of most service-learning based in most social service agencies by offering a glimpse of historical consciousness, praxis, critical thinking, all with an emancipatory perspective.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Explaining how teaching critical thinking may be standardized, Graff and Birkenstein (2008, 19), present a series of formulaic approaches encouraging students to engage in critical thinking, including at the most advanced level “close reading, interpretation, and analysis; working with factual, statistical, and textual forms of evidence; and even the ethical ability to entertain opposing perspectives, putting ourselves in the shoes of those who disagree with us,” but this is all within a limited epistemological framework assuming objectivity and fixed categories.
This is not just about diverting our attention in a consumer society. If that were the case, we could simply shift our gaze back. But, as Marx (1977, 176) points out, “commodity fetishism,” in which social relations among people appear as relations among things, leads us to think in different categories altogether. If we think of commodities as innately having value based on their usefulness (use-value) while we ignore the creation of value (exchange-value) by human labor organized in particular ways, then the conditions of exploitation and oppression seem incidental to economic production. Students tend to see existing social relations as natural and not the outcome of particular historical processes leading to social structures today. As Jameson (2007, 35), points out, this world view also includes “social and psychic fragmentation” and an acceptance of a Cartesian notion of abstract space, one divorced from social relations, in which there is a “parcellization” or commoditization of space and “of the psyche as well.” Such a world view facilitates the destruction of communal space as private property, and introduces as a central category, individuals, more completely atomized and part of increasing commoditization of what was once a non-market domain. Seeking to make students aware of commoditization and its accompanying notions of society governed by objectivity and science constitutes a pedagogical challenge.
Similar problems arise even when organizations use a community based asset mapping strategy of identifying individual and community resources and talents that may be matched to subsequently identified needs rather than modify the existing structures that contribute to that need. While some agencies have a ‘preventative’ and education focus, even these tend to address individuals rather than society.
Comments selected as typical from among about 300 evaluations collected. Students are assigned numbers in the order in which they are placed in this discussion.
References
Banks, N., Schneider, G., & Susman, P. (2005). Paying the bills is not just theory, service-learning about a living wage. Review of Radical Political Economics, 37(3), 346–356.
Dorman, P. (2002). Pedagogy and political economy. Review of Radical Political Economics, 34(4), 487–492.
Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed (translated by Myra Berman Ramos). NY: Continuum.
Giroux, H. (1981). Ideology, culture, and the process of schooling. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Graff, G., & Birkenstein, C. (2008). A progressive case for educational standardization. Academe, 94(3), 16–20.
Gramsci, A. (1920, 1971). Selections from the prison notebooks (Ed. and Trans. Hoare, Q & and Nowell-Smith, G., (London: Lawrence and Wishart)
Howard, J. (1998). Academic service-learning: a counternormative pedagogy. In R. A. Rhoads, & J. P. F. Howard (Eds.), Academic service-learning: A pedagogy of action and reflection (pp. 21–30). San Francisco: Josey-Bass.
Jameson, F. (2007). Jameson on Jameson: Conversations on cultural Marxism. Durham: Duke University Press.
Lukacs, G. (1923). The Marxism of Rosa Luxemburg. History and Class Consciousness. Retrieved April 260, 2008, from http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/index.htm
Marx, K. (1845). Part I: Feuerbach. Opposition of the materialist and idealist outlook. The German Ideology, Retrieved May 8, 2008 from http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1845/german-ideology/ch01b.htm
Marx, K. (1977). Capital Volume 1. New York: Vintage.
Mayo, P. (2004). Liberating praxis: Paulo Freire’s legacy for radical education and politics. Westport, CT.: Praeger.
Rupert, M. (1997) Globalization and the reconstruction of common sense in the US. In Gill. S. & Mittelman, J. (Eds.), Innovation and Transformation in International Studies (Cambridge University Press). Retrieved May 9, 2008 from http://faculty.maxwell.syr.edu/merupert/Research/COX.HTM
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Susman, P. Transformation through the Brigades. For Soc Econ 38, 247–262 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12143-008-9026-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12143-008-9026-5