Abstract
The present essay discusses the value of citizenship as shared fate in sites of ethnic conflict and analyzes its implications for citizenship education in light of three issues: first, the requirements of affective relationality in the notion of citizenship-as-shared fate; second, the tensions between the values of human rights and shared fate in sites of ethnic conflict; and third, the ways in which citizenship education might overcome these tensions without falling into the trap of psychologization and instrumentalization, but rather focusing on providing opportunities for social and school practices that manifest shared fate and compassion in critical ways. It is argued that what teachers and schools should try to do is to make practices of shared fate and compassion possible through creating conditions for children and young people to experience what it means to enact such practices in sites of ethnic conflict. It is also suggested that teachers and schools in sites of ethnic conflict cannot produce ‘new’ citizens on the basis of any values, no matter how ‘noble’ these values may be. The most that can be done is to help children and young people to critically reflect upon the conditions under which people in sites of ethnic conflict can act on the basis of shared fate and compassion and provide support so that these possibilities can become realistic.
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Notes
Examples of states which suffer from normative ethnic divisions are Israel, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Cyprus; citizens in these countries have to live together under a common statehood, yet pragmatically the society is divided in ethnic groups whose members have little or no cross-group interactions in everyday life (see McGlynn et al. 2009).
The language of ‘fate’ has undoubtedly its pitfalls (Williams 2009); however, it “captures this sense that the condition of political action is a world that has been shaped by forces other than our intentional agency” (p. 44). Furthermore, Williams argues that the emphasis on fate does not imply fatalism or destiny; on the contrary, the identification of a particular web of relationships on the basis of shared fate is a pragmatic step toward exerting political agency.
Particularism is the claim that ethnicity, race and nationality are unique; universalism refers to the fact that some principles apply to all, regardless of particular claims.
Drawing on Rancière, Biesta (2011) discusses an important distinction between ‘identification’ and ‘subjectification’. Thus, identification is about taking up an identity that already exists, while subjectification is the production of a subject that is not previously identifiable within a given field of experience.
Another important distinction that needs to be made here is the one between the political and the moral. Drawing on Mouffe, both Biesta (2011) and Ruitenberg (2009, 2010) highlight that in many conflicts today, the opponent is viewed in moral (e.g. right vs. wrong) rather than in political (e.g. right vs. left) terms. Both Biesta and Ruitenberg agree with Mouffe that disagreements should be envisaged in political and not in moral terms, because it is the political that recognizes the role of power relations in constituting any social order. This distinction has important implications for the way we educate children and young people to analyze political conflicts and view others as adversaries rather than moral enemies (Ruitenberg 2009). Thus, an important component of the notion of shared fate is not necessarily to erase completely the distinction between ‘us’ and ‘them’ (e.g. in the context of an ethnic conflict), but to imagine how a we/they relation can be established in different ways (e.g. on the basis of common objectives).
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Zembylas, M. Citizenship Education and Human Rights in Sites of Ethnic Conflict: Toward Critical Pedagogies of Compassion and Shared Fate. Stud Philos Educ 31, 553–567 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-012-9293-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11217-012-9293-8