Introduction

This chapter provides a general introduction to the edited volume of Citizenship Practices in East Africa: Perspectives from Philosophical Pragmatism. It contextualizes the contribution of the book within three ongoing discussions: first, on the role of a normative starting point in development research; second, on the principle of philosophical pragmatism of starting theorizing from human practices; and third, on the efforts to conceptualize citizenship on the basis of everyday experiences. The chapter sets the main objectives of the book as to articulate a concept of citizenship based on philosophical pragmatism, to explore a variety of practices in which citizenship habits are acquired a…

The Rocky Road of Growing into Contemporary Citizenship: Dewey, Gramsci, and the Method of Democracy

Characterized by globalization, increasing pluralism, and new complexities of citizenship, the contemporary world poses challenges to the ways in which we conceptualize of the processes of searching for shared solutions to ever-complicated social problems. While the political rhetoric emphasizes the value of citizens’ participation, engagement, and “voices,” there are increasing feelings of frustration, incapacity, and disinterest on behalf of the citizens regarding the supposed eff ects of their political engagement. In order to conceptually grasp the problem of searching for shared solutions and the related challenges to education, we draw on John Dewey’s idea of the method of democracy a…

Citizenship Learning: Contextual, Material and Political

AbstractThis chapter focuses on three intertwined dimensions central to contemporary studies of citizenship: the material, the cultural and the political. Based on these, it develops an account of citizenship learning that draws on socio-cultural and socio-material theories of learning and emphasizes everyday encounters and practices as spaces central to learning citizenship. It illustrates with examples from African contexts how contextual, material and political dimensions of citizenship manifest themselves in practices wherein citizenship is performed and learned. In conclusion, it suggests an account of citizenship learning which locates learning in the dynamic interaction between indiv…

Introduction: Learning, Philosophy and African Citizenship

AbstractIn this chapter, we offer a background to the edited volume, the research project that produced it and its content—a series of investigations of the contested notions of citizenship and learning, and their interconnections. We set the agenda for exploring citizenship and learning as defined in philosophical traditions, and as experienced and described in selected locations in Tanzania and Uganda, and also introduce the contributions from the perspectives of both citizenship and conceptualizing learning.

Growth Into Citizenship: Framework for Conceptualizing Learning in NGO Interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa

This article develops a theoretical framework for analyzing adult learning in projects aiming to strengthen citizenship implemented by nongovernmental organizations, especially in the contexts of sub-Saharan Africa. On the basis of a review of international development research, we suggest that a new framework should address the need for a conceptualization of learning as a gradual process and for capturing the gap between ideal models and everyday experiences of citizenship. We argue, building on John Dewey’s philosophy, for a framework of growth into citizenship, and introduce the notions of learning as reorganization of habits and the method of democracy as an avenue for learning as nove…

Practices of Citizenship in East Africa

Climbing the Ladder? Community Perspectives on Learning to Be a Good Citizen in Uganda

AbstractThis chapter examines the ways in which members of a rural community in Western Uganda perceive and conceptualize diverse ways of learning to be a good citizen. It analyzes data generated by means of a tool called the ‘ladder of citizenship’, which facilitated explication of local ideas concerning good citizenship, and reflections on how one can ‘climb the ladder’, thus learning to be a better citizen. The chapter draws on, first, the concept of cultural citizenship, which understands citizenship as a continuous learning process that takes place through interaction in informal settings, and second, the notion of folk pedagogies that refers to people’s own conceptualizations of learn…

Practices and habits of citizenship and learning

This chapter discusses the volume’s theoretical underpinnings, which are derived from philosophical pragmatism. One of the key ideas of this research project has been to bring philosophical and empirical research into dialogue by following the principles of pragmatism. Pragmatism sees the relationship between theory and practice as bidirectional: all theories must be subjected to revision in light of practice but, at the same time, a crucial role of theories is to critique current practices. At the level of methodology this implies that theorizing must be tied to what people do. The second central feature of pragmatism is that human experience is a crucial starting point of inquiry; pragmat…

Conclusions

John Dewey’s notion of social intelligence

This chapter focuses on Deweyan understanding of intelligence as fundamentally social. This understanding differs from the common conceptions of intelligence as a feature of an isolated individual and/or as a possession of an elite. Starting with a look at the relevance of reconceptualizing intelligence, the chapter continues by describing how, according to Dewey’s theory, intelligence forms, manifests and cumulates in interactions. It then discusses the presumable implications of Dewey’s theory in terms of the contextuality of intelligent action, the importance of taking relevant experience-based information into account, the use of a particular method of inquiry, and modification of educa…