Abstract:ABSTRACT The argument developed in this article is located within a tradition of debate which has been described as the ‘conflicting imperatives’ model of the relationship between democracy and capita...ABSTRACT The argument developed in this article is located within a tradition of debate which has been described as the ‘conflicting imperatives’ model of the relationship between democracy and capitalism (see Carnoy & Levin, 1985). The discussion focuses on the implications of the model for the construction of educational and work identities in the later modern period (Giddens, 1991). The model is considered to be particularly apposite at the present time because it encourages a continuing focus on the relationship between education and work in debates at all levels of the system. The article begins with a clarification of assumptions about the centrality of work for identity and the need for a reconstructed version of the ‘work ethic’, followed by a brief review of current apologies for ‘harmony’ between the two contradictory imperatives. Continuities are identified between earlier interpretations of vocational education, in particular those of Dewey, and cultural understandings of the self, work and education at a later stage of modernity. It is suggested that an alternative version of education and work might involve interpreting both as ‘practices’ in the sense used by Macintyre (1981) and regarding identity work in school and beyond school as located in moral discourse. The implications of this for approaches to ‘work’ in the school context are briefly discussed.Read More
Publication Year: 1996
Publication Date: 1996-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 4
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