Bildung and the significance of place - an overview

1 2 Introduction Bildung and the significance of place 3 PT Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 Authors: 5 Morten Timmermann Korsgaard (corresponding author) 6 Associate Professor 7 Faculty of Education and Society, Malmö University, Sweden 8 email: [email protected] 9 Line Hilt 10 Professor 11 Department of education. University of Bergen 12 email: [email protected] 13 Merete Wiberg 14 Associate professor 15 Danish school of education. Aarhus University. 16 email: [email protected] 17 Mariann Solberg 18 Professor 19 Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences and Education. UiT The Arctic University of Norway. 20 email: [email protected] A CC EP TE D M A N U SC RI 4 21 22 No conflict of interest to report. 23 © The Author(s) 2024. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. 1 1 Bildung and the Significance of Place: An Overview 2 4 hørte han hjemme? … 5 (But where was he to seek his true desire and his need? 6 Where was he at home? …) RI PT Men hvorhen søgte da egentlig hans Ønske og hans Trang? Hvor (Lykke-Per 1967: 312) 7 9 SC 8 In 2002, a special issue was published in the Journal of Philosophy of Education inquiring into theories and conceptions of Bildung in the encounter with contemporary conditions of postmodernity and globalization 11 (JOPE 36/3). The overall idea of the special issue was to rewrite the concept of Bildung in the context of 12 postmodern conditions, without falling into totalizing conceptions (Løvlie and Standish 2002: 320). In their 13 critique of modern culture, poststructuralists like Jean-François Lyotard had argued that the grand 14 narratives of humanity were no longer viable. This critique foreshadowed an attention towards the micro- 15 narratives of human beings, such as the significance of localized and place-bound human self- 16 understanding, as well as the stories of marginalized peoples. Other thinkers (e.g. Alasdair MacIntyre) 17 understood the postmodern condition from a more pessimistic angle, however, lamenting the loss of a 18 teleology of processes of Bildung and thus the possibility of human perfection. Franz Kafka’s modernist 19 novels, such as The Process and The Castle, are compelling stories of how individuals get lost in bureaucratic 20 systems and ideologies, highlighting alienating processes and human beings’ struggle for identity and 21 belonging in modern societies. Nevertheless, the Norwegian educational philosopher Lars Løvlie reminds 22 us that pedagogy is per se earthbound, territorial, situational, and local. Pedagogy takes place in situated 23 interactions between persons and is not merely about individuals in abstract formal management systems A CC EP TE D M A N U 10 24 (Løvlie 2007: 32). 25 26 This special issue focuses on the significance of place in and for theories of Bildung, a focus that is relevant 27 considering the many crises concerning places around the globe. Conflicts regarding places often arise in 28 connection with minorities with a long-standing belonging to a particular territory that does not map on 29 neatly to nation-state borders, such as the Sámi population in Norway, Sweden and Finland, and Native 30 Americans in the USA. (See especially the paper in this special issue by Ole Andreas Kvamme.) The great 2 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 3 2 discussion of what it means to feel at home in a place, and the particular experience of being a newcomer 3 in a country. ‘In the United States, for the majority of its black population, the troubled history of their 4 country has created feelings of conflict and alienation.’? (See in particular the essay by Noemi Bartolucci.) 5 At the same time, nationalism and the exclusion of foreigners are emerging forcefully across Europe, as 6 well as in other parts of the world, risking a new emphasis on blood and belonging and a rise in totalitarian 7 regimes. Furthermore, the climate crisis and biodiversity loss are causing concern for places, as well as 8 struggles over their ownership, thus actualizing questions of the reasons and grounds for possessing and 9 exploiting common ground, the earth, territory and homeland (Purdy 2006). Such concerns are manifestly 10 present in the debates around the impact of the digital world, with education increasingly moving its place 11 ‘online’. (See the discussion of ‘digital Bildung’ by Neal Thomas.) This goes hand-in-hand with an increase 12 in standardization across boundaries and borders. In an educational context, children and young people 13 may suffer from isolation, loneliness and feelings of anxiety in the encounter with an increasingly abstract 14 digital performance and output-oriented educational system. This is a great cause for concern, given that 15 feeling at home is for some ‘the key idea of any kind of education (Erziehung) or cultivation (Bildung)‘ 16 (Gadamer 2001: 531). M A N U SC RI PT influx of migrants and refugees worldwide, travelling from a homeland to a foreign place, also urges a D 17 To be place-bound may in fact be seen as being an essential part of the human condition. In his work Being 19 and Time, the German philosopher Martin Heidegger analyzed the ontological characteristics of the human 20 being as ‘thrown into‘ and positioned somewhere in the world. In particularly, the concept of ‘‘Dasein’’ 21 referred to as ‘‘Being-there’, emphasizing the place-bound position from which a human being interprets, 22 understands, and deals with the world. Human beings can certainly feel at home or not, but according to 23 Heidegger, not feeling at home reminds us of the human condition, and this is the basis of our constant A CC EP TE 18 24 striving to become authentic beings (Heidegger 1962, p. 234). In this sense, not feeling at home is a key 25 element in processes of Bildung. (For a discussion of Bildung in light of the ideas of Gadamer and 26 Heidegger, see the essay by Milena Cuccurullo.) 27 28 The origin of Bildung and the emergence of place 29 Traditionally, Bildung highlighted the transformative path of becoming for the individual human being, as 30 well as the cultural influence this person encounters. (On transformative becoming and alienation, see 31 especially the essay by Karsten Kenklies.) The concept has been influential in continental pedagogy and is 3 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 1 2 the individual’s transformative journey and encounters with the world. Thus, theories of Bildung often refer 3 to the classical Bildungsjourney as an instantiation of the process of Bildung, highlighting the movement 4 between familiar and unknown in the Bildungsroman. Starting off in the familiar landscape of the place 5 where she grows up, the young person travels out into the world to meet and deal with the unknown, 6 before returning home more enlightened and mature than before. This archetypical image thus implies that 7 both familiarity with what is known as well as openness to the unknown are crucial elements of the process 8 of Bildung. However, the image of the Bildungsjourney is, as illuminated in this special issue, not strictly 9 confined to the German or European context, as comparable images have emerged in other parts of the RI SC 10 PT not easily translated into English. Bildung means something akin to formation in culture, as the concept marks globe. U 11 The Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller recently reminded us that ‘humans are not just in the world but 13 are born somewhere in the world. We learn a language and acquire cultural habits, and the places we grow 14 up in are therefore extremely significant for our becoming as human beings—indeed, for our becoming 15 human beings’ (Heller 2019). This somewhere eventually becomes a home, at least temporarily, and for 16 some it becomes a place in relation to which they remain nostalgic and connected throughout life. For 17 others, their home becomes a place from which they cannot escape quickly enough, indicating that the 18 significances we ascribe to places can equally be a source of alienation. Hence, it is not surprising that the 19 classical Bildungsroman oftentimes revolves around escape, exile, or nostalgia for the place one calls home. 20 Thus, we emphasize that the significance of place for Bildung is not a new theme for educational theory—it 21 has been addressed in several classical theoretical works on Bildung. Today, however, we might disagree 22 over whether and how place should be seen as a relevant concept for educational theory, or over whether 23 the relationship between Bildung and place should be understood differently today. One might also ask if A CC EP TE D M A N 12 24 there are blind spots in classical theories of Bildung, that could prove significant for fully understanding 25 processes of Bildung and the complex, sometimes conflicted relationship we have with the material, social, 26 and cultural world. This question is highlighted in the special issue by contributions that takes the material 27 and bodily dimension of Bildung into account, and that treats these aspects of our becoming as enabling 28 rather than restricting for processes of Bildung. 29 30 Although places certainly have a material dimension, they are created by acts of meaning making, 31 constituting something more than territories, mountains, rivers, houses, buildings, parks, and so on. The 4 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 1 2 arguing that place should play a significant role in educational theory. However, the significance of place 3 for Herder, lay first and foremost in our linguistic abilities, grounded in his expressivist language 4 philosophy. Humanist geographer Yi-Fu Tuan (1977) pointed out that what separates a concrete site or 5 space from a place is exactly the linguistic, moral, and aesthetic significance human beings ascribe to it. 6 Interestingly, the etymological meaning of words such as ‘politics‘ and ‘ethics‘ is found in the Greek 7 language in words that exactly signify place, namely polis (city state) and èthea (habitats) (Casey 2013). A 8 version of this understanding of place is the ontological primacy given to the communitas in the 9 communitarian tradition. The individual is not given, but always already interwoven with social and cultural SC RI PT German philosopher J.G. Herder, was concerned with the significance of place for human perfection, relationships and structures of meaning. Although this line of thought has been present in continental 11 educational thinking, the special issue also turns its attention to the Japanese thinker Tetsuro Watsuji’s idea 12 of education as ‘learning one’s place’. (See the essay by Anton Sevilla-Liu.) N U 10 13 A central question for many of the papers in this special issue is thus how theories of Bildung can engage 15 the social and cultural embeddedness of human becoming in the world. One contribution discusses 16 similarities and differences between the Aristotelean concept of human flourishing and Bildung and relates 17 these concepts to the significance of place. (See the essay by Kjersti Lea.) Other papers discuss how our 18 relationships with places have existential meaning for us. Although the cosmopolitan ideal may favour a 19 person who does not belong anywhere or who belongs just as much everywhere, human beings are in this 20 perspective deeply immersed in concrete places. It may even be argued that human beings have certain 21 propensities and existential orientations that have made it possible for us to make spaces into places: ‘the 22 place-making propensities of humanity … must be seen from the outset as having been inseparable from 23 formulating and answering questions about our place in the world: the place of ‘‘humanity’, of ‘my people‘, A CC EP TE D M A 14 24 and of ‘me personally’ (Herschock and Ames 2019: 3). However, the three modes of place-making referred 25 to here - ‘humanity’, ‘my people’, and ‘me personally’ - are in our view not to be seen as perfectly and 26 harmoniously aligned. There are, for instance, deep seated conflicts between finding the place of ‘my 27 people‘ and the place of ‘humanity‘ in general. This is exemplified, for instance, by Agnes Heller’s Paradox 28 Europa (2019), in the conflict between anthropological foundations and the universalism of values. As 29 human beings, we are born somewhere in the world, with a certain mother tongue and identity that 30 provides us with roots and belonging, but at the same time we are - from a certain vantage point - born 31 free and equal, with universal rights. This conflict is in this special issue investigated in a Bildung theoretical 5 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 1 2 a view on this debate.) While nostalgia typically concerns a longing to feel at home somewhere (that is, in a 3 specific place, nationality, language, culture or tradition), universal values such as equal rights and tolerance 4 transcend the specific human being and local group and deal with humanity and the world as a shared 5 home. PT context as a clash between nostalgic and universal values. (See in particular the essay by Merete Wiberg for 6 Although most of us grow up and feel we belong to a certain place, Barbara Cassin (2016) reminds us that 8 this is not fixed. Our feeling of being at home can change. This is brought out in the famous Danish 9 Bildungsroman Lykke-Per (Happy Per ), in which the protagonist feels most at home simply when he is lonely SC RI 7 in a remote and desolate place. Yet this is to deny the feeling of homeliness he gets when he is with his 11 family. Torn between these places he must decide; yet he is never able to grasp fully which is truly his 12 home and how his formative journey has led to one preference over another. There are things, such as our 13 mother tongue and the place of our upbringing, that never leave us, yet they often fail to hold sway entirely 14 over who we become. Feeling at home is not simply a connection with one’s homeland and the place 15 where one grew up. It changes over time, rendering places that were once homely foreign and eerie. In the 16 introduction to her collection of essays called Nostalgia, Cassin details how she has come to feel most at 17 home on an island she had no previous connection to. The island has grown into her, and she into it, 18 through the shared practices and experiences she has had there. It formed her, and she formed a small 19 corner of it into a place she could call home. N A M D EP TE 20 U 10 The relationship between finding one’s own place in the world and the place of one’s people - the 22 individual and cultural dimension of finding one’s place in the world - can also be seen as essentially 23 conflicted. In The New Religious Intolerance Martha Nussbaum (2012) points out how different constructs of A CC 21 24 place, such as common culture (history and values), blood ties, ethnicity, earth-boundedness, linguistic 25 belonging, and religion, have all been central elements in building national sentiments in Europe. This way 26 of manifesting national belonging has led to the fact that newcomers are seldom considered as belonging 27 to the nation. However, as Benedict Anderson reminds us, the nation can be seen as an imagined 28 community, rather than an ontological entity (Anderson 2006). If we follow Anderson’s analysis, we may 29 be able to develop a different perspective on the nation-state, one that does not necessarily require feelings 30 of belonging. In a world of transcultural exchange, extensive displacement, and a growing tourist industry, 6 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 1 1 it is pertinent to ask if it is even possible to give renewed significance to the notion of place in theories of 2 Bildung without falling into traditional conservatism—or even worse—into nostalgic nationalism. 3 5 been prominent. This has been present even in classrooms across the globe, and it has had detrimental 6 effects on both pupils and teachers. The marginalization of specific groups of people tends to create a 7 dynamic where identification and belonging to the group, the desire for group members, are taken to be 8 integral to processes of liberation: they come to be interpreted as matters of moral and political duty, by 9 those with the power of definition within the group. Absolutizing the connection between specific groups 10 and specific places (land) can thus, paradoxically, be an opening towards individual freedom for members 11 of marginalized groups, as well as a hinderance for personal freedom. Turning to a search for oneself and 12 one’s own way of life in the grammar of one’s native languages is an alternative way to enter the places 13 where we grew up and to make them relevant for Bildung. This may be of particular importance for 14 recognition of ‘the storied landscapes‘ of indigenous grammars, and it may be a promising way forward for 15 non-colonial place-aware theories of Bildung. (For a reflection on this issue, see the essay by Jeff Stickney.) M A N U SC RI PT In some areas of the world, the marginalization and silencing of indigenous peoples and minorities have 16 Place thus appears to be a concept presenting possibilities as well as dangers for educational thinking, 18 rendering the relationship between place and Bildung essentially conflicted. This ambivalence in the 19 relationship between Bildung and place is also addressed by a discussion of the concepts of authenticity and 20 alienation for theories of Bildung. The ideal of authenticity that developed in the Romantic era emphasized 21 that both individuals and places would find their own authentic processes of cultivation towards humanity. 22 However, the relationship between personhood and places in modernity is far from being a straightforward 23 issue, and we are therefore in need of a theory of authenticity and Bildung that takes the complex A CC EP TE D 17 24 relationship between personhood and places into account. Furthermore, in modernity, the relationship 25 between personhood and places is not only mutually enriching, but also a potential source of alienation. 26 (See the essay by Line Hilt and Øyvind Halvorsen.) 27 28 Alienation or estrangement from one’s environment is often seen as part of the modern condition with its 29 abstract systems devoid of personal connection and meaning. The connectivity such systems install is 30 abstracted from the kinds of qualities we tend to ascribe to places. The French anthropologist Marc Augé 31 (2020) has introduced the telling concept of ‘non-places‘ to describe the spaces of transition that we 7 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 4 2 places for the exchange of people and goods, but they lack the necessary character of places, such as 3 human connection. In this special issue, the concept of non-places is discussed and rearticulated in light of 4 new developments in university structures and contrasted with Ronald Barnett’s view of the university as a 5 site for care and curation. (For an elaboration on this, see the essay by Christiane Thompson.) PT typically inhabit in our modern daily lives. Train stations, airports, shopping malls and refugee camps are 6 Our paths through places—and non-places—often take on a narrative form and, given the importance of 8 the Bildungsroman for the first theories of Bildung, it is no surprise that many of the papers in this special 9 issue examine works of literature in their analyses. Shared by all these analyses is the emphasis on the SC RI 7 movement implied in any process of Bildung, from place to place and from feelings of belonging to feelings 11 of alienation, in a fluctuation that often does not seem to end. (Indeed it is movement that goes down to 12 the physical movement of our bodies in relation to gravity—a factor crucial to the earliest stages of our 13 education, as is shown in the paper by Birgit Schaffer and Camilla Kronqvist.) In this way, we hope to have 14 contributed to opening anew the discussion of Bildung, by bringing into focus the role of the places in 15 which these processes take place and, in the process, to have brought into view again some of the perennial 16 tensions inherent to education. These are tensions that perhaps are perhaps not meant to be resolved or 17 dissolved, but perhaps to be lived in the places we inhabit. D M A N U 10 18 Literature: Anderson, B. (2006) Imagined Communities. Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised version. 21 London and New York: Verso. 22 Augé, M. (2020) Non-places: An introduction to supermodernity. London: Verso Books. 23 24 25 Casey, E. (2013) The Fate of Place. A Philosophical History. Oakland: University of California Press. Cassin, B. (2016) Nostalgia: When are we ever at home? New York: Fordham University Press. 26 Gadamer, H.-G. (2001) ‘Education is Self-Education’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 35/4: 529-38. 27 Goldberg, D. T. (2001) The Racial State. Oxford: Blackwell. 28 Heidegger, M. (1962) Being and Time. New York: Harper San Fransisco. 29 Heller, A. (2019) Paradox Europa. Wien and Hamburg: Edition Konturen. 30 Heller, A. (2015) Paradox of the European Nation State and the Stranger. Casa della cultura. 31 https://www.casadellacultura.it/170/paradox-of-the-european-nation-state-and-the-stranger, accessed 11 32 June 2024. A CC EP TE 19 20 8 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 1 2 Company. 3 Hershock, P. D. and Ames, R. T. (eds) (2019) Philosophies of Place: An Intercultural Conversation. Honolulu: 4 University of Hawaii Press. 5 Løvlie, L. (2007) ‘The pedagogy of place’, Nordisk Pedagogik, 1. 6 Nussbaum, M. (2012) The New Religious Intolerance. Overcoming the Politics of Fear in an Anxious Age. Harvard 7 University Press. 8 Pontoppidan, H. (1967) Lykke-Per 1-2. København: Gyldendal. 9 Purdy, J. (2006) This Land is Our Land. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press RI SC Tuan, Y.F. (1977) Space And Place. The Perspective of Experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. A CC EP TE D M A N U 10 PT Herder, J. G. (2004) Another Philosophy of History. Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing 9 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jope/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jopedu/qhae072/7821073 by guest on 06 November 2024 1