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Chapter 14 - The Consumerist Threat to Education and Democracy

from Part III - Responses to Contemporary Moral Problems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2023

By
Trevor Norris
Edited by
Douglas W. Yacek ,
Mark E. Jonas  and
Kevin H. Gary
Douglas W. Yacek
Affiliation:
Universität Dortmund
Mark E. Jonas
Affiliation:
Wheaton College, Illinois
Kevin H. Gary
Affiliation:
Valparaiso University, Indiana
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Summary

In this chapter I identify several important questions consumerism raises regarding moral education, and conclude by considering how moral education can address consumerism in several important ways. In doing so I explore the extent to which the moral and political aims of education intersect, noting consumerism’s moral implications for democracy, citizenship, and public life in general. Not only are advertising and marketing the “new educator” but consumerism is also undermining the more conventional or noncommercial kinds of education. Moral education always takes place in a social and political context, which today is increasingly dominated by consumerism. I argue that schools, which are foundational in the formation of the moral and civic identities of future democratic citizens, are still a crucial locus of resistance against the forces of consumerism. Given the moral implications of the dominance of consumerism in the contemporary world, there is an urgent need to address consumerism in modern moral education.

Keywords

consumerismadvertisingmarketingdemocracycitizenshipcivic education
Type
Chapter
Information
Moral Education in the 21st Century , pp. 260 - 280
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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