In this book she describes the perplexing crises which modern society faces as a result of the loss of meaning of the traditional key words of politics: justice ...

Villa critically examines, among other topics, the promise and limits of civil society and associational life as sources of democratic renewal; the effects of mass media on the public arena; and the problematic but still necessary ideas of civic competence and democratic maturity."--BOOK JACKET.

In “The Crisis in Education,” her only essay dedicated to the topic of education, Hannah Arendt presents a position that in many ways runs counter to her conception of the political based on participation, actions and the potential for radical change. In so doing, she provides her readers, both political and pedagogical, with a perspective on education that challenges its instrumentalization for the sake of the political. To appreciate the counter-cultural yet commonsense claim Arendt makes, I will first consider the (...) meaning of the term citizenship and its Arendtian interpretation in a political context. Second, focusing on Arendt’s 1958 essay, I will explain why education is not first and foremost a public issue and therefore should not be interpreted as belonging to a political context. Connected to this, I bring to light Arendt’s well known discourse of the ensuing dangers of a confusion of the private and public realms. Her somewhat unwelcomed pedagogical-political contribution confronts us with our assumption that the solution to the crisis in citizenship lies within schools, showing it as yet another symptom of the political crisis of modernity. Having shown how and why schools cannot be asked to create citizens, I will – immersed in a paradox that Arendt recognizes – consider several means by which education can, in a secondary role, help us to understand and reflect upon the contemporary crisis in citizenship. (shrink)

Hannah Arendt's essays about the 1957 crisis over efforts of a group of youth, the “Little Rock Nine,” to desegregate a high school in Little Rock, Arkansas, reveal a tension in her vision of the “public.” In this article Aaron Schutz and Marie Sandy look closely at the experiences of the youth desegregating the school, especially those of Elizabeth Eckford, drawing upon them to trace a continuum of forms of public engagement in Arendt's work. This ranges from arenas of “deliberative (...) friendship,” where unique individuals collaborate on common efforts, to a more conflictual “public stage,” where groups act in solidarity to change aspects of the public world. While Arendt famously asserted in her essay “The Crisis in Education” that political capacities should not be taught in schools, it makes more sense to see this argument as focused on what she sometimes called the conflictual “public stage,” reflecting the experience of the Little Rock Nine. In contrast, Schutz and Sandy argue that Arendt's own work implies that “deliberative friendship,” as described in her essay “Philosophy and Politics” and elsewhere, should be part of everyday practices in classrooms and schools. (shrink)

By bringing Hannah Arendt’s politics into dialogue with Emmanuel Levinas’ ethics, this book develops an approach to the political that is relational, inclusive, and empowering.