ERIC Number: EJ1290938
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Feb
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0309-8249
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The Care of Our Hybrid Selves: Towards a Concept of "Bildung" for Digital Times
Journal of Philosophy of Education, v55 n1 p41-54 Feb 2021
This article draws on the work of Michel Foucault to develop a concept of "Bildung" for our digital times. It first shows how Foucault's concept of disciplinary power challenges the traditional "Bildung"-ideal of autonomy. It then goes on to elaborate Foucault's concepts of power, freedom and self-practices, which can all be extended to the domain of technology use: just as we can never escape from power relations, we cannot purify ourselves from technology, and a clear distinction between humans and technologies is illusory at best. This does not imply an elimination of freedom, however, because, just as with power, freedom does not consist of an absence of external influences, but the practice of coping with these influences. Contemporary "Bildung" can therefore be characterized as what Steven Dorrestijn calls a care of our hybrid selves, which includes critical skills, like attentional control. Such skills do not stand in opposition to digital technology, however, but in relation to it and must be cultivated through extensive training. Furthermore, while educational initiatives play a vital role in this training process, we must not neglect students' own technological self-practices. Exploring such practices allows us to analyse the technology-related critiques that already exist in everyday practice.
Descriptors: Personal Autonomy, Freedom, Power Structure, Man Machine Systems, Attention Control, Coping, Training, Students, Technology Uses in Education
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
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Language: English
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