Alison Scott–Baumann’s Paul Ricoeur: Empowering Education, Politics and Society employs Ricoeur’s philosophy to unpack contemporary universities’ struggles with polarisation and activism. Though short in form, this rich critical study illuminates how universities understand themselves and why fostering dialogue around disagreements and controversies can enable more inclusive, empowered academic communities, writes Torsten Janson.

Paul Ricoeur: Empowering Education, Politics and Society. Alison Scott-Baumann. Springer. 2023.

Activism on campus: how can universities respond?  

More than a year has passed since Hamas’ horrific attack on 7 October 2023 and the beginning of Israel’s catastrophic assault on Gaza in response. As the conflict deepens and spreads throughout the region, so does the polarisation of debate around it, paradoxically both hampering and creating new openings for the discussion of the conflict. At this critical juncture, universities could play a crucial role – yet are fraught with incertitude and reluctance.

In student-organised rallies and encampments worldwide, the tone of voice remains fierce and uncompromising: “Demand cease fire! Enforce sanctions! Boycott Israeli institutions!”. Staff are polarised between student support and disgruntlement with student activism as an ideological incursion of allegedly “neutral” university spaces. Many university leaderships have responded by calling upon police to root out protesters. Others take a permissive if restrained stand, allowing student protests while remaining quiet on the issue itself, incurring harsh critique. Speaking out can jeopardise financing for private institutions; public universities, such as my home institution, consider themselves as bound by bureaucracy and state policies. And even if willing to engage, the complexities of the conflict and the polarisation of public debate have chilling effects on engagement, from leadership offices to coffee rooms.

Alison Scott-Baumann’s conveniently short study Paul Ricoeur: Empowering Education, Politics and Society provides an important and perceptive discussion of the dilemmas universities face today. Published in 2023, its relevance has only increased in the past year. Yet this is not a book about activism per se, nor Middle Eastern conflicts. Its relevance emerges through an erudite, sympathetic but critical, and self-reflective study of the educational and activist philosophy of Paul Ricoeur, relying on Scott-Baumann’s longstanding philosophical authorship, educational research, and outreach and mediation expertise. The book is published within SpringerBriefs in Education: “concise summaries of cutting-edge research and practical applications in education”, from Plato and Martin Luther to Hannah Arendt and Slavoj Žižek.

There are similarities between the incendiary questions besieging Ricoeur’s time and our own. Yet current populist binaries and fictitious ‘culture wars’ further inhibit solidarity across (culturally, ideologically, and/or religiously imagined) groups

French philosopher Paul Ricoeur (1913-2005) developed a phenomenological and dialectical approach to hermeneutics, the philosophy of understanding, beyond a study of texts. Understanding one’s self emerges in dialectical relation to anything beyond the self, he maintained. His life-long participation in contentious debates and student activism makes him particularly pertinent, Scott-Baumann argues, for reflecting on university education in a framework of polarisation. Ricoeur’s aspired to create a “permeable membrane between university and society” (21), sadly non-existent in our contemporary circumstance. The study contextualises Ricoeur’s philosophy with events contemporary to his writing – French colonialism and independence struggles, the 1968 student revolt, and the American civil rights movement – and applies it within the context of polarisation, populism, and discrimination of today. Ricoeur hence provides a philosophical foundation as well as a pedagogical paradigm for “using language constructively” (2) and “identifying and moderating the antagonistic effects of false binaries” (3).

There are similarities between the incendiary questions besieging Ricoeur’s time and our own. Yet current populist binaries and fictitious “culture wars” further inhibit solidarity across (culturally, ideologically, and/or religiously imagined) groups. Campus should either be defined by unrestricted free speech (libertarianism) denying the realities of discrimination, or by censorship (no-platforming). Squeezed in this “pincer grip” of populism (9), universities recede into silence. Activism against racism, colonial mindsets, and/or sexism are discarded as disruptive rather than cohesive aspirations. In Britain, denial is commonly mustered in “defence” of an imperial afterglow. We see similar ideas, I believe, in the idealisation of French laïcité or the Swedish “welfare state”. Hence Scott-Baumann provides more than an advanced introduction to Ricoeur, his contributions and limitations. By putting his thinking to work today, the author provides a sharp analysis of the current shortcomings of educational institutions in an appeal to universities to recommit to dialogue and engagement with crises.

Scott-Baumann does so by chiselling out an applied pedagogical response. In dialogue with pragmatist thinkers Jane Addams and Danielle Allen, she suggests a tripartite model geared at improving communication, empowering learners, and ultimately altering political praxis. These aspirations encapsulate one another like “Russian dolls”. At their core, forums of “Communities of Inquiry” are created, founded on Ricoeur’s dialectical philosophy and pragmatist procedural ethics: communicative mediation based on clear, morally grounded, and mutually agreed conversational conduct. On the next level, a “Politics of pedagogy” takes learning out of the classroom, bringing (and creating) knowledge into the corridors of power. On the outermost level, such efforts may alter “Polity praxis”: better-informed decision-making based on insights beyond party-political and lobbyist entrenchment. In sum, the model seeks to reduce communicative, democratic, and agentive deficiencies, by improving political literacy among university students and staff “in the intersection of education, politics, culture and nationalism” (4).

This book will serve not only as an advanced handbook on Ricoeur, but as an indispensable guide for identifying, discussing, and improving how universities understand themselves today

The study comprises 121 pages, organised in seven chapters, which can be read as stand-alone essays. Chapter One outlines how Ricoeur’s dialectical approach may challenge false binaries and populism. Chapter Two revisits the very idea of the university, and how it is threatened by commodification and the quest for funding, ranking, and recruitment, while extra-curricular exchange is limited to “quality assuring” assessment surveys. This is a far cry from the incisive interactions defining Communities of Practice (Chapter Three). The following chapters reflect on contemporary university practice through the prism of Ricoeur’s developing philosophy. We follow his successful engagement in activism against colonial violence in Algeria (Chapter Four), ensued by his frustrated attempts at building a de-hierarchised university in Nanterre (Chapter Five). In the American context (Chapter Six), the author critically discusses Ricoeur’s limited understanding of racism and his suspicion of identity-based politics, also underlying his gender-blindness. Chapter Seven summarises the argument and suggests a list of policy recommendations.

Despite its modest format, the study is rich and dense. Apart from pedagogically elucidating philosophical thought (phenomenology, hermeneutics, pragmatism, rhetorics), it engages with several complex societal issues and theoretical debates: populism, securitisation, racism and white privilege, gender, secularism, the denigration of non-European thought, and the decolonisation of curricula. When engaging with such fiercely contested issues, the author avoids facile position-taking, while remaining committed to principled humanitarianism, justice, and dialogue. Also noteworthy is how Scott-Baumann grapples with her own white privilege, acknowledging how it obstructs seeing and knowing the realities of racial discrimination. Racism occurs not only through ideology, institutional practice, and hegemony. It works on the level of cognition. References are generous (yet contain some glitches of missing posts in the bibliographies). Some diversions could have been excluded or better integrated. Among them, certain digressions on Islamic thought strike me as somewhat laboured and/or undeveloped. And while the samples of Communities of Inquiry at the end of Chapters Four, Five and Six are intriguing, they are too summative to provide entirely clarifying illustrations.

Yet such issues are allowable given the limitations of the book’s short form. This book will serve not only as an advanced handbook on Ricoeur, but as an indispensable guide for identifying, discussing, and improving how universities understand themselves today: How to regain enthusiasm for (and competence in) open and productive interactions among students, staff, and leaderships; how to find the courage of disagreeing well on topics fraught with controversy; and how to muster the confidence to speak truth to power, in a context of both lingering and acute emergencies. 

Listen to a podcast interview between Alison Scott-Baumann and Torsten Janson discussing academic freedom in today’s climate.

Note: This review gives the views of the author and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, nor of the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Image: lev radin on Shutterstock.

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