Deweyan Pragmatism Research Articles

Securing the Self, Embracing Anxiety, or Nurturing Growth? How the Pragmatism of Dewey, James, and Mead Speaks to Ontological Security Studies

Abstract A Pragmatist form of Constructivism speaks to, and encourages, an ethical/normative turn in Ontological Security Studies (OSS). Recognition that Self-securing routines are sometimes “unhealthy” implies that the subject of security is human experience and that social identities or social roles are means to that end. This resonates with John Dewey's Pragmatist focus on the practical task of ameliorating experience in environments constantly in the process of becoming. Normative value is not ontological, i.e., found in a fixed identity; it is processural, i.e., found in the practice of “learning” and the process of “growth.” A Pragmatist narrative of learning and growth offers OSS a normative focus that is more compelling than the recent calls to “embrace anxiety,” although it is important to acknowledge that even these narratives can induce anxiety. OSS can, in this instance, turn to the Pragmatist William James and his focus on the role that “faith” plays in encouraging the Self to adopt new identities. Building on this, Dewey formulated a “civic faith” to defend democratic routines (and the democratic identity) as a useful method of (social) learning. Finally, the Pragmatism of George Herbert Mead demonstrates how this democratic commitment to include “the Other” in the processes that secure the Self helps restructure an environment that otherwise demands dangerous routines. The article draws on Cold War history to demonstrate how such practices can and should be part of the “cultural repertoire” informing ontological security-seeking practices in contemporary Europe.

Rethinking pragmatism through the lens of Michel Foucault: governance of bilateral relations

Abstract Pragmatism, responding to the call for ‘decentring International Relations’, fosters analytical eclecticism for resolving inter-paradigmatic disputes. John Dewey's pragmatism aligns seamlessly with constructivism, offering nuanced insights. However, in bilateral relations, pragmatism is often confined within realist frameworks, lacking analytical rigor for understanding governmentality. In this article, the author challenges this by emphasizing relational power dynamics and non-neutral knowledge, introducing ‘balancing pragmatism’ rooted in ‘bricolage’ for nuanced governance. Leveraging Foucauldian insights, the author reconceptualizes governance pragmatism within the power-knowledge interplay, illustrated by the India–Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement (LBA). The LBA's success challenges realist power paradigms, recognizing the pivotal role of Foucauldian dynamics in enhancing pragmatic balancing. This enriches the constructivist paradigm with discerning governance. Interpreting pragmatism through a Foucauldian lens in the LBA underscores implications for bilateral governance, highlighting analytical eclecticism and adaptability within a Foucauldian framework to address geopolitical challenges. It advocates for a more inclusive analytical approach in international relations. Understanding ‘balancing pragmatism’ is crucial for practitioners, challenging the state-centric paradigm and emphasizing nuanced governance through the transformative intersection of power and knowledge. Interpreting pragmatism as a Foucauldian-informed balancing act, as seen in the LBA, holds broad implications for IR, urging scholars to integrate Foucault's dynamics for nuanced global analyses of pragmatic balancing.

Language as social action: Gertrude Buck, the "Michigan School" of rhetoric, and pragmatist philosophy.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Gertrude Buck and collaborators developed a sociologicallyand pragmatist-informed approach to language that has been neglected in later scholarship. Buck approached the study of language from the standpoint of pragmatist functional psychology, which is indebted to John Dewey's pragmatism at the University of Michigan, and which views language as a normal, dynamic action of human organisms engaged in necessary cooperative relations with one another. Her approach overcomes the small-minded pragmatism that would criticize figurative or poetic language as impractical, and instead shows how figuration is essential to the particular ways in which language is action that conveys meaning to others and serves broader social functions. Buck's forgotten work helps overcome criticisms of the application of pragmatic action theory to language and literature, sketching how language structure may be explained on the basis of language as a natural social-communicative act, how figurative language is inherent in the normal act of communicating situated bodily experiences to others, and how rhetorical speech and writing contributes to participation in democratic social processes. This paper also indicates how Buck's work has been partially rediscovered in Composition Studies, as well as prefigures later reader-response esthetics and feminist analyses of language.

Expanding Pragmatism with Symbolic Interactionism: Recounting the Story of Two Frameworks

Abstract This article describes the story of pragmatism and its transformation into symbolic interactionism at Carnegie Mellon University and Aalto University. In both universities, design researchers were interested in user experience in interactive systems. John Dewey's pragmatism taught them to study how experience sometimes transforms into an experience and occasionally into stories. Herbert Blumer's interactionism had its roots in Chicago School sociology, and it developed in association with pragmatism. His interactionism gave these researchers tools to study Dewey's concepts empirically. We show in the article how this theoretical connection came about after 2000 and how it has shaped research programs in these two communities since then. We also discuss the relevance of pragmatism and interactionism in our current technological landscape, dominated by social media and artificial intelligence.

Nature-based solutions as more-than-human art: Co-evolutionary and co-creative design approaches

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are mostly seen as engineering approaches to meeting challenges of human societies under ecological stress, while also nurturing biodiversity. We argue that given the accelerating speed of environmental change, NbS design for biodiversity recovery cannot be informed by past or current conditions but must create evolutionary potential for yet unknown future biodiversity. The objective of our paper is to reconceptualizing this creative role of NbS design as artwork, building on John Dewey's pragmatist aesthetics. We suggest that in emphasizing the aesthetic dimension of NbS, triggers, mechanisms and affordances can be harnessed that activate the co-creative potential of both humans and non-humans for cooperation, resilience, and future biodiversity. We build on recent developments, both practical and experimental, in interspecies art and design and locate these in the two dimensions of co-creation and co-evolution. As a result, we distinguish three categories of NbS as artwork, transformative art, interspecies art and exaptive art, present their main features and give some illustrations of how they may regenerate the current ways to approach and design NbS.

Investigating the cultural dimension of circular economy: A pragmatist perspective

Circular Economy (CE) builds on the Industrial Ecology (IE) framework by taking a comprehensive approach to reducing waste, pollution, and pressure on natural resources within the broader multi-stakeholder production-consumption loop. Despite the potential benefits of CE, previous research has identified technical, organizational, and institutional challenges that hinder its widespread adoption. In this paper, we investigate how the cultural dimension of CE (e.g., stakeholders, socioeconomic interactions, values, and institutions), as opposed to its technical dimension (e.g., industrial symbiosis, reduce, reuse and repair), were addressed in previous literature, and show how applying Dewey's pragmatist philosophy to CE can facilitate its adoption beyond idealistic aspirations. To do so, we conducted a content analysis of 69 studies focusing on the definition and implementation of CE from technical and cultural perspectives. The findings show that environmental and efficiency motivations alone are insufficient for the successful large-scale implementation of CE. The cultural dimension of CE, encompassing the stakeholders involved in the production-consumption loop, their social and spatial relations, as well as the institutions and policies that govern their economic activities, is also essential to consider for effective CE implementation as it can be impacted by and impact CE. The paper concludes by discussing the contribution of a pragmatist perspective in taking the cultural dimension into account to advance national and subnational CE transition agenda.

ФІЛОСОФСЬКА ПАРАДИГМА НАУКОВОЇ ОСВІТИ: КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНА ЕКСПЛІКАЦІЯ

The relevance of the development of science education provokes new discussions about its philosophical foundations, which cover the attributes of progress in this field since antiquity and offer new projects and perspectives for the development of a philosophical paradigm of science education in view of the challenges and requirements of today. The article is devoted to the analysis of three main approaches to define the philosophical paradigm of science education: interiorization, interrelational, and multiperspective. The interiorization approach to defining the philosophical paradigm of science education involves the development of the "philosophy of science education" as an "internal philosophy". The interrelational approach to delineating the philosophical paradigm of science education is based on identifying the relationship between the philosophy of science and science education, the relationships between sections of philosophy and scientific inquiry. The most comprehensive approach to defining the philosophical paradigm of science education is multi-perspective, which is based on addressing various philosophical trends and their understanding of scientific meaning and rationality, mutual influences and contradictions, determining the contribution of each of them to the progress of the theory and practice of science education. This approach usually develops the concept of science education through the prism of such philosophical trends as John Dewey's pragmatism, constructivism, rationalist school, classical empiricism, and postmodernism. Each of the mentioned directions is analyzed in the article in the context of the dialectics of science education.

More Is Required of Us: Complicating an Ontology of Experience at the Heart of Community-Based Research

More Is Required of Us: Complicating an Ontology of Experience at the Heart of Community-Based Research

Hickman, Buddhism, and Algorithmic Technology

Abstract This paper is a further reflection on my dialogue with Larry Hickman, director emeritus of the Center for Dewey Studies, and Daisaku Ikeda, president of the lay Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International (sgi). One surprising outcome of this dialogue is how similar Deweyan pragmatism is to many forms of Mahayana Buddhism such as sgi. Here I survey some similarities between Hickman’s philosophy of technology and Buddhism by emphasizing value creation and criticism. (Soka Gakkai means value creating society.) I then explore Peter D. Herschock’s, Buddhism and Intelligent Technology relying on Hickman to rectify Herschock’s philosophy of technology before discussing how Herschock’s insightful application of Buddhist ethics to ai and the internet accord with Hickman.

Value magic

The urban process encompasses vast structures and practices engaged in creating, extracting, and accumulating value in and from the urban landscape. But what is value and how does it attain its coercive power over urban life? The unreflective deployment of axiomatic assumptions regarding the source and substance of value constitutes a form of magical thinking conjuring something out of nothing and transforming an immaterial abstraction into a material force that is real in its consequences. Unpacking the concept of value reveals a contentious debate regarding the ontological status of value as a driver of the urban process. Alternative formulations posit value as intrinsic or extrinsic, objective or subjective, residing in the world or constructed in the mind, driven by universal law or spatially and temporally contingent. Transcending all such dualisms, a transactional approach drawn from Deweyan pragmatism understands value as a co-constitutive interrelation among a valuing subject, an object of valuation, and the enveloping context in which valuation occurs. The delineation of value's ontology is fraught with political consequences for reproducing or altering the urban status quo. The move toward desired outcomes begins with articulating the foundational assumptions that underlie the value practices propelling the urban process in specific situations. Pluralizing value assumptions focuses the problem on the political question concerning whose value(s) prevail in a given situation. This redefinition shifts the focus from ameliorating current practices of extracting value to politically contesting the value commitments at work in the world.

Art as Critical Experience in Theodor W. Adorno and John Dewey.

The idea of risk, of the willingness to be exposed to the possibility of total failure, is a core value of Adorno's philosophical and aesthetic modernism. This willingness to be exposed to risk is also a quality that Adorno associates most strongly, in aesthetics, with Deweyan pragmatism. Against tendencies to assume an irreconcilability of critical theory and pragmatism, this essay ventures that an appreciation of Adorno's acknowledgement of Dewey in his Aesthetic Theory would mean considering that it is in Dewey that Adorno might have found the closest exemplar of the dialectical, experimental freedom that he desired for his aesthetics.

Applicability of Deweyan Pragmatism to Zimbabwe's Contemporary Education System

Applicability of Deweyan Pragmatism to Zimbabwe's Contemporary Education System

Experiencing Being Judged: Making Visible School Community Expectations of Rural Principals

Judgements of the work of school principals may be formal through an appraisal process or informal from students, teachers, parents, and members of the community in which the school operates. This article focuses on New Zealand rural primary school principals’ experiences of informal expectations—and judgements about whether they meet these expectations—from school community members. The aim of this study is to illustrate principals’ work in responding to community expectations and the contextual factors of school settings, and to advocate for more overt policy and process attention to such work in the formal appraisal of principals. Using Deweyan pragmatism for a theoretical approach, research evidence was generated from semi‑structured interviews with principals and ex‑principals of small rural schools. Abductive analysis was used. Not only do principals’ relationships with individuals and groups within their communities impact on their work and ability to succeed in their professional ambitions for school and students, but relationships between groups in the school community may also influence local judgements of that work. These relationships can be important aspects of schools’ historical contexts. The time principals spend prioritising and responding to community expectations is notable and should be reflected in policy and processes of principal appraisal. Insights from this research are likely to be useful for principals and their mentors, as well as for facilitators of preparation programs and inservice professional learning for principals and aspiring principals.

Podcasts: A generator of non-formal learning

The present study examines the relationship between the use of podcasts (mp3 files) as a non-formal learning tool. The study´s epistemological origins lie in Dewey's pragmatism and learning and reflection theory, including the learning approach at University College of Northern Denmark’s (UCN) “Reflective Practice-based Learning” (RPL). This paper focuses on how podcasts can increase students’ learning and reflection skills by using podcasts as a generator for non-formal learning. The study is based on two different classes that attend an extended course in digital technologies and project management at the Danish University of Applied Science (UCN). The study applies integrated mixed-method data collection: observations, a quantitative survey, and semi-structured interviews. The observations were carried out during four (project management) and seven (digital technologies) full-day lectures in two different classes. These offered an insight into the extent to which the students acquired knowledge by listening to podcasts between classes. The quantitative data consisted of a survey of 65 students, all of whom participated in the courses. The survey was performed as a part of the evaluation at the final course lectures. The semi-structured interviews (ten in all) were used to investigate how the use of podcasts affects students' reflective skills. Ten semi-structured interviews were conducted. The data in this study finds that podcasts/podcasting can have a positive effect on students’ non-formal learning in higher education. Established on the findings, there is evidence indicating podcasts as a supplement in higher education can increase students´ motivation toward non-formal learning. The study reveals that podcasts hold the potential to stimulate the student's non-formal learning and increase the students’ reflective skills. Based on this evidence, further research is suggested e.g. studies that include an extended investigation on the benefits of students’ non-formal learning by using podcasts.

The generative dance of design inquiry: Exploring Dewey's pragmatism for design research

In design research, the activities of design and research coalesce. It introduces thorny epistemological challenges and Dewey's pattern of inquiry is explored for its relevance for design research. First, a logical framework for design inquiry is developed that enables to reach warranted conclusions, retrospectively. Second, a temporal framework of activities is inferred, based on the experiences of two PhD candidates. These frameworks offer guidance to (1) develop transferable knowledge; (2) by oscillating between known theories and uncharted practices until new ideas arise; whereby (3) the value of these ideas is validated through experiments (action validity); and (4) with a community of inquiry (consensual validity). The knowledge produced stems from practice, is tested in practice and serves others in future inquiries. • Dewey's pattern of inquiry is explored for its relevance for design research. • A logical framework is developed that allows to reach justified transferable conclusions, but only retrospectively. • A temporal framework of activities is developed, describing an iterative process of sensemaking, designing and experimenting. • Design inquiry is radically practice-led and bridges the practice-theory divide.

FILSAFAT PENDIDIKAN PRAGMATISME Telaah Atas Teori Manajemen Pendidikan John Dewey

<p class="ContentAbstrak">Philosophy in educational management provides a philosophical basis for how the real management of education is built on the basis of a strong scientific perspective. A philosophical basis is needed in educational management or educational science experts in order to develop their knowledge productively and responsibly. The analysis is needed to explain how the ontological, epistemological and axiological workings of the science are developed. In this study, John Dewey's philosophy of pragmatism can at least provide theoretical reinforcement to the pragmatism-based philosophy of management education that he developed. Dewey's pragmatism philosophy can at least provide a theoretical foundation for how to understand the context of education, which has to do with the human process in finding answers to life based on their experiences. That, in the process of discovery, efforts to understand the close relationship between action and thought, between experiment and reflection are based on scientific principles. From here, the criteria for academic truth through education are seen as having uses for real human life.</p>

Redefining Morally Conscious Decision-Making for the Public Sector: A Theoretical Analysis

This paper proposes a conceptual definition of morally conscious decision-making as “cognizant processing of an actor’s core values setting aside self-interest when presented with a dilemma.” Using moral phenomenology, Deweyan pragmatism, and piecing together previous works on decision-making, we develop a definitional framework that makes a case for specified and refined scopes of our understanding of morality and ethics in public administration. We then decompartmentalize this framework to demonstrate the validity, benefits, purpose, and consequences of decision-making that is morally conscious. We propose critical thinking and situational awareness as required skills for the application of the proposed framework. Ultimately, morally conscious decision-making is a way for public administration to better activate a response to growing demands for increased accountability and just leadership.

Reply to Critics

Reply to Critics

“Conjoint Communicated Experience”: Art as an Instrument of Democracy

“Conjoint Communicated Experience”: Art as an Instrument of Democracy

Gender and Habit: John Dewey and Iris Marion Young on Embodiment and Transformation

Gender and Habit: John Dewey and Iris Marion Young on Embodiment and Transformation