Democracy and the Commons: Pedagogical Horizons for Education

Abstract

This paper will argue the need to reclaim, re-engage, reimagine and revitalize the Commons as a space for youth to inhabit and utilize to enact democratic thought and action.  Linking historical and contemporary understandings of democracy to the current global crisis that it faces, the Commons as a location for youth to learn beyond the enclosed space of the school is advocated as a practice that simultaneously reinvigorates democracy, while pushing back against neoliberal culture and economics that seeks to undermine it.  This work will cite examples from Winnipeg, Canada, of how the Commons has been restricted, and how it might be reclaimed.