Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology

Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology welds together biography, treatise, and analysis in service of excavating the possibilities for human liberation under the staggeringly complex conditions of a technologically saturated, ecologically ruinous state of late capitalism. Wide ranging and lucid, Peter McLaren and Petar Jandric draw on decades of research, personal experience, and critical philosophy in order to offer thought-provoking insights and practical ways forward. * Gabriella Coleman, The Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University, Canada * This book shows the importance of critical pedagogy and liberation theology as intellectual means of struggle against digital capitalism. An essential reading for anyone interested in the advancement of socialist humanism. * Christian Fuchs, Professor of Media and Communication, University of Westminster, United Kingdom * If there ever was an urgent need for revolutionary critical pedagogy, it is in today's dystopian world. These inspiring dialogues between two great minds and activists are full of pertinent insights useful to navigate ourselves in the early 21st century and, hopefully, to change our today's predicament. Not constrained by typical academic conventions, this book offers a much needed subversive manual for a future worth hoping - and fighting for. * Srecko Horvat, Philosopher and author of Poetry from the Future * Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technologyis reminiscent of what Paulo Freire called talking books , which bring two powerful authors into a direct and fluidly exchange. As such, it exemplifies the very power of dialogue, illustrating the inextricable relationship of knowledge as both a social construction and collective endeavor. The result is a beautiful treatise that, although focused on Peter McLaren, allows the multiplicity of questions and responses to boldly weave a powerful story, from where essential political issues crucial to our liberation and the survival of the planet can emerge. In this sense, McLaren and Jandric convey a beautiful dance of ideas, woven intricately over the years from each man's consciousness, scholarship, and lived experiences as radical intellectuals, political freedom fighters, and transformative advocates in the world. * Antonia Darder, Endowed Chair of Ethics & Moral Leadership, Loyola Marymount University, USA * In Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology, Peter McLaren and Petar Jandric have provided us with a pathbreaking volume traversing the realms of Marxist theory, critical pedagogy, and Liberation Theology combined with the most creative, far-reaching applications of critical social theory likely to be found anywhere. Those applications extend to the realms of modern technology, global capitalism, ecological crisis, U.S. imperialism, and of course the state of modern education in the United States and elsewhere. This is nothing short of a landmark contribution to literature spanning the fields of history, sociology, global studies, philosophy, and education. McLaren's iconic work is also biographically highlighted here, starting with an introductory section (written by Jandric) that brilliantly traces the personal and intellectual development of the world's leading critical pedagogical theorist. A highly-recommended collection of essays for anyone interested in state-of-the-art revolutionary theorizing that outlines a much-needed path out of the modern crisis. * Carl Boggs, Professor of Social Sciences, National University Los Angeles, USA * In an age when critical pedagogy and a new language for rethinking politics is crucial, Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology is a crucial book to read, study, and give to others. * Henry Giroux, The Paulo Freire Distinguished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy, McMaster University, Canada * This is a truly inspiring convergence of revolutionary ideas to offer signposts for redemption in this baleful 'New Fascist' era. * Peter Mayo, Professor of Higher Education, University of Malta, Malta * This is a wide-ranging, provocative, and insurrectional series of transnational dialogues that becomes an immediate classic within the much beloved tradition of the Talking Book in critical pedagogy * Richard Kahn, Professor of Education, Antioch University Los Angeles * Peter McLaren stands among the doyens of critical pedagogues, having done much to take the field forward over decades, and this book - of correspondences with Petar Jandric - goes far in revealing the breadth of that endeavour. To read this book is to eavesdrop on an extraordinary conversation, at once intimate and enriching. Chock-full of insights, this volume exemplifies a lifetime of passionate, humane and radical scholarship, as McLaren ranges effortlessly across education, social theory, religion, the digital age, ecology and the Anthropocene. The cast includes Jesus, Marx, Freire, Rand and Trump and it is clear where McLaren stands in each case. This book is both immensely enjoyable and educational and I shall want to read it again. * Ronald Barnett, Emeritus Professor of Higher Education, University College London Institute of Education * Peter and Petar, the wonderful namesakes, have written a book consisting of epiphanic dialogues in their idiosyncratic and rousing styles. The book is an introduction to the authors' recent thinking, an emic view to the work and research themes of two critical scholars, and also a demonstration of how the discourse of critical pedagogy has over the years expanded from the classroom and public pedagogy to comprise various themes in the changing relationship between technology, education, and society. * Juha Suoranta, Professor of Social Sciences, Tampere University, Finland * In this thought provocative book, Peter McLaren and Petar Jandric push again the borders of existing thinking on radical critical pedagogy. In our current times of transhumanism, this book offers its readers new spaces for hope and revolutionary praxis. By connecting faith and postdigital sciences this dialogical book goes beyond addressing issues of capitalism to suggesting a way to reclaim the future of humanity. * Maria Nikolakaki, Associate Professor, University of Peloponnese, Greece * What started out as a multiyear dialogue between world-renowned educator Peter McLaren and communications technology scholar-activist Petar Jandric has morphed here into a must-read reflection on revolutionary critical pedagogy and liberation theology as an indispensable reservoir of theories, ideas, insights and practices to draw on for those who want to confront the ravages of a predatory global capitalism. Wide ranging and exciting, of the greatest political urgency, this work will inform and inspire contemporary emancipatory struggles around the world. * William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology, University of California at Santa Barbara, USA * This ground-breaking work by two eminent scholars a generation apart in age addresses crucial questions as to whether digital technologies and rapid communication can help free us from a seemingly never-ending capital accumulation designed only to benefit the few. Using ideas from critical pedagogy and liberation theory it asks whether there is hope that new technologies can help the many become more complete and equal human beings in a world no longer devoted to profit and exploitation. * Sally Tomlinson, Emeritus Professor at Goldsmiths London University & Honorary Fellow in the Education Department, University of Oxford. UK * This book is both a homage to, and a kind of radical intensification of, the educational dialogue. McLaren and Jandric's exchanges not only excavate the value of critical pedagogy in contemporary times of techno-capitalism, but also expose the richness of their surrounding intellectual communities. The result is a hopeful work that develops liberation theology for the postdigital era. * Jeremy Knox, Lecturer in Digital Education, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom * In proposing a revolutionary critical pedagogy as a tool informing the struggle for a liberated future McLaren and Jandric have done a great service in recapitulating past critical theories and indicating a way forward towards a future beyond a digitised capitalism. I highly recommend their conversation as a critical thought provoking and emotion eliciting exercise. * Helen Raduntz, Adjunct Research Fellow, University of South Australia * Peter McLaren and Petar Jandric's Postdigital Dialogues on Critical Pedagogy, Liberation Theology and Information Technology boldly confronts, in illuminating conceptual analyses, a multitude of contemporary challenges to the creation of new human relations, relations that are not rooted in the value form of labor but rather in human production for humans - production that affirms every other being as a necessary facet integral to one's own essential and total being. Grappling with such pressing issues as the formation of consciousness in an ecosystem saturated by technology, the re-emergence of authoritarianism and fascist social structures, and the stakes in attempts to reconcile the spiritual and the material, McLaren and Jandric range far and wide, but through sharp dialectical reasoning, they always bring the analyses back to capitalism as a totality that must be abolished. In their far ranging discussions, McLaren and Jandric vigorously deploy theory in the particular sense articulated by Theodor W. Adorno: as that which seeks to give a name to what secretly holds the machinery together, that which seeks to raise the stone under which the monster lies brooding. * Deborah Kelsh, Professor of Education, The College of Saint Rose, USA * This book is an invitation to join McLaren and Jandric on a rigorous yet lively, challenging yet rewarding walk across a sprawling range of pressing political, scientific, educational, and yes, even theological issues of our time. The walk is rigorous in the depth and nuance of the research and argumentation; it's lively in the way the dialogues are situated again and again in the ongoing political antagonisms of our era; its challenging as it weaves together diverse thinkers together in unorthodox ways; and its rewarding not because it leaves the reading having finally got it, but rather because it leaves us with an entirely new set of questions to explore, and the resources necessary to explore them. * Derek R. Ford, Assistant Professor of Education Studies, DePauw University, USA * In this excellent book, Petar Jandric and Peter McLaren have created a perceptive commentary on the possibilities and perils of our postdigital world. * Richard Barbrook, Senior Lecturer in Politics at the University of Westminster, United Kingdom * Peter McLaren and Petar Jandric have written a necessary book for these times. Book that no social militant can stop reading. * Fernando Lazaro, Educador Popular, Docente Universidad Nacional de Lujan Militante social CEIPH, Argentina *