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Discussion of selections from Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey: Modernities and the Traveling of Pragmatism in Education (2005), Democracy as Culture: Deweyan Pragmatism in a Globalizing World (2009)

 About Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey…

“This collection includes original studies from scholars from thirteen nations, who explore the epistemic features figured in John Dewey's writings in his discourses on public schooling. Pragmatism was one of the weapons used in the struggles about the development of the child who becomes the future citizen. The significance of Dewey in the book is not about Dewey as the messenger of pragmatism, but in locating different cultural, political and educational terrains in which debates about modernity, the modern self and the making of the citizen occurred.”

About Democracy as Culture…

“Using a multidisciplinary approach, contributors to this volume explore the significance of John Dewey’s Pragmatism for the contemporary world. They examine such issues as whether Classical Pragmatism justifies global democracy, whether Dewey’s idea of democracy―so intimately linked to American culture―has any relevance for other cultures, and whether democracy can take other forms than those found in Europe and America. Contributors focus on Dewey’s cross-cultural experience and affinities with Descartes and modern Neo-Confucians to provide a glimpse of how Dewey’s influence outside America has stimulated other cultures, heralding a new stage in the growth of Pragmatism.