Human Motivation in the Digital Commons: Reflections on Robbie McClintock's Conception of Formative Justice

Abstract

Background & Purpose According to McClintock, persons and groups exercise formative justice as a strategy of selecting the behaviors, powers, and potentials that ought to receive educational attention to achieve their maximization. We argue that the question of what motivates individuals and collectives to utilize certain capacities to realize specific goals becomes paramount to the issue of formative justice. Drawing on distinguished work in experimental psychology and network theory, we explore the relationship between human motivation and the utilization of commons-based digital resources in education. We argue that the insights gained in the course of integrating commons-based digital resources into educational practice can also further advance our critical understanding of Robbie McClintock's conception of formative justice. In particular, we focus on the twin notions of value and human motivation in both formative justice and digital culture. Formative justice and digital culture share an emphasis on the pursuit of goals for intrinsic purposes rather than as a means toward extrinsic rewards such as monetary compensation. This shared approach to value theory makes formative justice an increasingly important contribution to 21st-century educational theory. Research Design We analyze Robbie McClintock's conception of formative justice, as well as work in experimental psychology and network theory, in order to give substance to the theory of human motivation implied in his account. Conclusions/Recommendations We conclude by suggesting that formative justice as an educational paradigm is best served by an emergent curriculum that responds to the evolving interests of students in connection with the teacher's knowledge base and interests.