Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-wq484 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T11:23:58.463Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

22 - Education, Trust, and the Conversation of Democracy

from Part Three - Key Topics and Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 April 2023

By
Anthony Simon Laden
Edited by
Julian Culp ,
Johannes Drerup  and
Douglas Yacek
Julian Culp
Affiliation:
The American University of Paris, France
Johannes Drerup
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Douglas Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Get access

Summary

Although it is widely thought that more education is a reliable remedy for democratic ills, I argue that it is not always so. The problem arises because education plays a role in shaping what I call people’s trust networks: the set of sources of information they regard as trustworthy. A democratic society can falter if its citizens live on isolated epistemic islands (i.e., occupy nonoverlapping trust networks). If the educational system serves to reinforce one kind of trust network rather than help people build bridges between trust networks, education will rearrange the population of these islands but potentially make the underlying topography less democracy-friendly. The chapter makes this case and then looks at some potential educational remedies to the problem it outlines.

Keywords

trustsocial epistemologycivic engagementhigher educationreligionmarginalization
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Democratic Education , pp. 361 - 376
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Capella, J. N., & Jamieson, K. H. (2008). Echo chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the conservative media establishment. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fish, S. (1997). Boutique multiculturalism, or why liberals are incapable of thinking about hate speech. Critical Inquiry, 23(2), 378–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laden, A. S. (2012). Reasoning: A social picture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lugones, M., & Spelman, E. (1990). Have we got a theory for you! In Al-Hibri, A. & Simons, M. A., eds., Hypatia reborn. Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Jefferson, T. (1820). From Thomas Jefferson to William Charles Jarvis, 28 September 1820. Founders Online (National Archives). Available at: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/98-01-02-1540.Google Scholar
Mill, J. S. (1989). On liberty. In “On liberty” and other writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morton, J. (2019). Moving up without losing your way: The ethical costs of upward mobility. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Nguyen, C. Thi. (2020). Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. Episteme, 17(2), 141–61.Google Scholar
Nguyen, C. Thi. (2023). Trust as an unquestioning attitude. In Gendler, T. Szabó & Hawthorne, J., eds., Oxford Studies in Epistemology: Vol. 7. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 214–44.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. (1994). Multiculturalism: Expanded paperback edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tully, J. (2014). On global citizenship: James Tully in dialogue. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×