SOCIAL CHANGE AND EDUCATION IN GREECE
BOOK LAUNCH EVENT
Social Change and
Education in Greece
Dr Spyros Themelis,
Senior Lecturer in Education, Middlesex
University
MONDAY, 22 April, 2013
5:00pm to 7:30pm
Event highlights:
Opening/closing chaired by Waqar Ahmad, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Enterprise ,
MiddlesexUniversity
Guest Speakers
Confirmed Speakers:
Tony Green,
Palgrave Macmillan Marxism and Education Series Editor, University
of London , Institute of Education
Professor Joyce
Canaan, Professor of Sociology, Birmingham
City University
Dr Eva Gamarnikow,
Department of Policy Studies, University
of London , Institute of Education
Dr Stathis Kouvelakis,
Reader in Political Theory, King's College London
Who should attend:
Research active staff, readers and professors from all Schools and Institutes
at Middlesex University
This event is free to attend, but participants must confirm
their attendance by email by 15th April. RSVP by 15th
April to Daniela Pantica on D.Pantica@mdx.ac.uk
About the Book
Social Change and Education in Greece
The post-war orthodoxy postulated that education is both a
mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for economic growth. This
book takes a challenging and refreshingly novel approach to the way education
and social mobility are researched and theorised. The key message it delivers
goes against the dominant post-war orthodoxy, which has postulated that
education is both a mechanism for upward social mobility and an engine for
economic growth in liberal capitalist countries. The conclusion the author
reaches flies in the face of mainstream political consensus that perceives
social mobility as panacea for the provision of occupational opportunities and
an instrument for the levelling of the playing field. Much of what lays beneath
social mobility, Spyros Themelis argues (apart from a great deal of sophisticated
number-crunching) is a celebration and acceptance of an unequal system of
allocation of opportunities.
This is one among very few studies that explore social
mobility and attendant processes with the use of both qualitative and
quantitative methods. The author views social mobility not merely as the
outcome of the movements of individuals from one income or occupational group
into another, detached from their societal, community and family context, as in
conventional mobility studies. Instead, he examines social mobility as a
complex process, where socio-economic (e.g. migration), cultural (e.g. marital
practices and community values) and political (e.g. political patronage)
forces, experiences, arrangements and strategies interact and interconnect in
impeding or enhancing individuals' and families' social mobility movements.
The book makes some contribution to the ongoing debate about
the economic crisis that has hit Greece since 2009. It suggests that
the failure of education to promote equality of opportunities is symptomatic of
the failure of the wider system to prioritise fair and equitable arrangements.
If Greece 's current
situation is to teach us a lesson, this is to urgently rethink about the whole
system, not only in Greece
but in the rest of the Western world too. The myth of education-based
meritocracy and unfettered social mobility has anaesthetised Western societies
to the multitude of social inequalities with which they are permeated. These might
be hard times, but all the more appropriate to urge us to think about positive
social change.
Dr Spyros Themelis
is a Senior Lecturer in Education, Department of Education, Middlesex University , UK
The book can be ordered
from this link: http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=537469
It is published in the Palgrave Macmillan Marxism and Education Series: http://www.palgrave.com/products/SearchResults.aspx?s=ME&fid=3658
and http://us.macmillan.com/series/MarxismandEducation
Details on the book were originally provided at: http://rikowski.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/social-change-and-education-in-greece-a-study-in-class-struggle-dynamics-a-new-book-by-spyros-themelis/
**END**
Cold Hands &
Quarter Moon, ‘Stagnant’ at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLjxeHvvhJQ
(live, at the Belle View pub, Bangor , north Wales );
and at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkP_Mi5ideo
(new remix, and new video, 2012)
'Cheerful Sin' – a song by Victor
Rikowski: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIbX5aKUjO8
Posted here by Glenn
Rikowski
All that is Solid for Glenn Rikowski: http://rikowski.wordpress.com
The Flow of Ideas: http://www.flowideas.co.uk
Online
Publications at: http://www.flowideas.co.uk/?page=pub&sub=Online%20Publications%20Glenn%20Rikowski
