Rethinking Citizenship

Are we, as educators, preparing students to be effective citizens in a society that no longer is? Rethinking Citizenship argues that recent technological shifts and changes have fundamentally altered society. Today's technological change means a difference in the very definition of society and is associated increasingly with the possibilities, problematics, and interpretations of globalization and of neoliberal and neoconservative cultural economics, some of today's most significant and contested concepts. With respect to critical pedagogy, these shifts present both problems and possibilities, specifically with respect to social justice. What is meaningful citizenship in an age of separated connectedness or connected separation? What are the implications of these technological developments for critical pedagogy-inspired citizenship education? How might mechanisms such as surveillance and spectacle help us understand contemporary society and its imperatives for citizenship and citizenship education? In light of these issues, Vinson and Ross brilliantly work towards a contemporary critical pedagogy and its implications for citizenship education.