Higher educational practices in post-Soviet Central Asia remain predicated on an authoritarian conception of expertise rooted in an objective and universal science. While the substance of such education has changed since the Soviet era, the form of education remains rooted in Soviet-era discursive ideological practices, practices that encourage civic passivity outside the classroom. The liberal arts model of higher education represents a significant challenge to prevailing education norms, but it is a model that is honoured more in name than in implementation by domestic and international reformers. The inability to articulate the broader societal significance of the liberal arts suggests a broader act of forgetting the civic inspiration of liberal education in established as well as developing democracies.
On the morning of 12 July 1990, I flipped on my TV to CNN's Headline News. I received about two hours of English-language television each morning, and had grown dependent on CNN to let me know in the vaguest sense what was going on in the world. I was living in Prague, in what would remain Czechoslovakia for another couple of years, part of the swarm of do-gooders, curiosity-seekers, and carpetbaggers descending on the entire former East Bloc at the end of 1989. By the time I left Prague, it was clear to anyone who looked carefully that the new regime's willingness to suspend visa and currency regulations made 'English teacher' a surprisingly lucrative moniker for anyone looking to cash in quickly before the heavyweights took over, and in the process thoroughly elided any boundary between do-gooders and carpetbaggers 1). Given the time difference between Prague and eastern Canada, that morning's top story on Headline News was the first I heard of events at Kanehsatà:ke, or as it was soon referred to, the 'Oka Crisis'. The previous 1 The comparison with the original 'carpetbaggers'-northerners who headed to the defeated Confederate South at the end of the American Civil War, looking to make quick profits during Reconstruction-resonates strongly. The Soviet bloc was seen as having been defeated in the Cold War, and an influx of transient opportunists saw this as a chance to get quickly rich. In Mandevillean fashion, private vices would become public virtues, as the populace of the former East bloc received a crash course in capitalism from its least reputable proponents. The joke was still circulating in the former USSR well into the twenty-first century: 'Everything we knew about socialism was false, and everything we knew about capitalism was true'.
This issue marks the relaunch of the journal Socialist Studies. Beginning with this issue, and over the next few years, we seek to establish a stronger, more visible presence for the journal, making Socialist Studies an essential part of the debate among the critical left in Canada, and beyond. Capitalism is in crisis, once again. A few have more wealth than they could possibly use in a thousand lifetimes, while over a billion others live without enough to eat. More goods and services are being produced than at any other time in history, yet masses of human beings struggle to provide food, shelter and clothing for themselves and their families. The world is in need of alternatives and a space for dialogue around critiques and alternatives is vital, for new and established scholars, activists and others. Socialist Studies has an essential role to play, providing a place both for critical reflections on the capitalist world system and for discussions about a more equal, just world beyond capitalism. This new step, aiming to increase the content, visibility and utility of Socialist Studies for critical scholars and activists on the left, is the latest development in the life of the journal. In May 2005, Socialist Studies: the Journal of the Society of Socialist Studies was established as a peerreviewed, interdisciplinary journal, replacing the Socialist Studies Bulletin, a more informal publication mainly featuring contributions by members of the Society for Socialist Studies. Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, a sociologist from Grant MacEwan University, served as the editor of Socialist Studies for the first nine issues, shepherding the journal through its early years and transition to a fully on-line journal in 2008. In this, she was supported by the energies of many committed volunteers, including the executive and 'lay' members of the Society for Socialist Studies.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.