Michael Snowden – författare

The concept of Global Civil Society as an ‘imagined global community’ is raising questions that challenge perceptions of a border-free, footloose, global community. The era of ‘hyper-individualism’, accompanied by the virtualization of the public sphere, is offering support for collective action and processes in the face of rising economic and social anxieties, such as inequality, poverty, terrorism, xenophobia, nuclear weapons, and environmental destruction. Global Civil Society is now equipping itself to negotiate with resurrected boundaries, calls for decelerating the flow of people, identity clashes and throwbacks to tribal politics.

Contestations in Global Civil Society examines the ways in which the global community is dealing with heightened destabilization, entering what has been dubbed an ‘Age of Fracture’, and takes a close look at contemporary shifts that accompany the resurrection of multiple normative civil society discourses such as political mobilization, polarization, responsibility, and participation.

What are the contestations within global civil society? What is our current perception of global civil society? How is it coping with the huge changes that are happening all around us? What will global civil society look like in the future?

The concept of Global Civil Society as an ‘imagined global community’ is raising questions that challenge perceptions of a border-free, footloose, global community. The era of ‘hyper-individualism’, accompanied by the virtualization of the public sphere, is offering support for collective action and processes in the face of rising economic and social anxieties, such as inequality, poverty, terrorism, xenophobia, nuclear weapons, and environmental destruction. Global Civil Society is now equipping itself to negotiate with resurrected boundaries, calls for decelerating the flow of people, identity clashes and throwbacks to tribal politics.

Contestations in Global Civil Society examines the ways in which the global community is dealing with heightened destabilization, entering what has been dubbed an ‘Age of Fracture’, and takes a close look at contemporary shifts that accompany the resurrection of multiple normative civil society discourses such as political mobilization, polarization, responsibility, and participation.

What are the contestations within global civil society? What is our current perception of global civil society? How is it coping with the huge changes that are happening all around us? What will global civil society look like in the future?

This far-sighted volume describes emerging trends and challenges in university-level social sciences education in an era marked by globalization, austerity, and inequity. It spotlights solution-focused and interdisciplinary methods of teaching,  developed to match influential academic ideas, such as self-directed learning and learning in communities, as students seek to engage with and improve conditions in their immediate environments. Chapters offer real-world applications of foundational concepts in the modern practice of teaching, learning, and curriculum development. Accordingly, the editors emphasize the relationship between pedagogy and curriculum, as both are critical in encouraging student autonomyand promoting optimum academic and societal outcomes.

Included in the coverage:

· Towards a concept of solution-focused teaching: learning in communities.

· Heutagogy and the emerging curriculum.

· Collaborative working in the statutory and voluntary sectors.

· Delivering a community development curriculum to students with multiple identities.

· Photography and teaching in community development.

· A model for change: sharing ideas and strategies.

The Pedagogy of the Social Sciences Curriculum will inspire sociologists, social workers, and health and sociology educators to take a deeper role in community well-being as students, faculty, and communities collaborate to make lasting contributions to society.