European Perspectives On Transformation Theory

This book offers a concise and comprehensive exploration of the theory of transformative learning by European researchers. Exploring Mezirow’s theory of transformative learning as a ‘living theory’, the editors and contributors ask whether there a uniquely European perspective on this theory that reflects Europe’s traditions and contexts. What is the nature of that perspective, and how is it similar or different to those espoused in the USA? This book outlines how the theory of transformative learning has been developed by European researchers, and how it has built upon, critiqued, and enriched the Transformation Theory proposed by Mezirow. Consequently, this volume outlines new theoretical perspectives for the future evolution of transformative learning and explores theoretical perspectives that can be put into practice in a range of fields. This wide-ranging volume will be of interest and value to all those interested in transformative learning theory.

The contributions of this book examine contemporary dynamics of migration and mobility in the context of the general societal transformations that have taken place in Europe over the past few decades. The book will help readers to better understand the manifold ways in which migration trends in the region are linked to changing political-economic constellations, orders of power and inequality, and political discourses. It begins with an introduction to a number of theoretical approaches that address the nexus between migration and general societal shifts, including processes of supranationalisation, EU enlargement, postsocialist transformations and rescaling. It then provides a comprehensive overview of the political regulation of migration through border control and immigration policies. The contributions that follow detail the dynamic changes of individual migration patterns and their implications for the agency of mobile individuals. The final part challenges the reader to consider how policies and practices of migration are linked to symbolic struggles over belonging and rights, describing a wide range of expressions of such conflicts, from cosmopolitanism to racism and xenophobia. This book is aimed at researchers in various fields of the social sciences and can be used as course reading for undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses in the areas of international migration, transnational and European studies. It will be a beneficial resource for scholars looking for material on the most current conceptual tools for analysis of the nexus of migration and societal transformation in Europe.

Expanding Transformation Theory offers a deeper understanding of the philosophy, principles and major components of Transformation Theory, which was developed by Jack Mezirow. It provides a thorough comprehension of the affinities of the theory with other emancipatory theoretical views and provides the readers with an expanded insight of the core theoretical framework that will support their research and educational practice. The book juxtaposes Mezirow’s perspective with those of ten major emancipatory educationalists – Dewey, Freire, Gould, Marsick, Socrates, Kegan, Greene, Argyris, Illeris, and Jarvis, respectively, who all share the idea of learning with the aim of changing problematic perceptions and behaviours. Such issues as convergences and divergences among the theoretical perspectives, as well as the impact of the theoretical ideas that Mezirow incorporated in his work, are addressed. The work of Mezirow is further reviewed in order to pinpoint the dimensions which appear to have been confirmed and endure over time, and, in turn, those that seem to need expansion or even revision. This book will be of great interest to researchers, academics, students, and adult educators who are interested in transformative learning theory and emancipatory education

Exploring Art for Perspective Transformation discusses fundamental theories regarding the emancipatory learning potential involved in artworks. It also provides teachers, as well as adult and museum educators a method of exploring artworks with a view to challenge learners’ assumptions.

This handbook offers an expanded discourse on transformative learning by making the turn into new passageways to explore the phenomenon of transformation. It curates diverse discourses, knowledges and practices of transformation, in ways that both includes and departs from the adult learning mainstay of transformative learning and adult education. The purpose of this handbook is not to resolve or unify a theory of transformation and all the disciplinary contributions that clearly promote a living concept of transformation. Instead, the intent is to catalyze a more complex and deeper inquiry into the “Why of transformation.” Each discipline, culture, ethics and practice has its own specialized care and reasons for paying attention to transformation. How can scholars, practitioners, and active members of discourses on transformative learning make a difference? How can they foster and create conditions that allow us to move on to other, unaddressed or understudied questions? To answer these questions, the editors and their authors employ the metaphor of the many turns into passageways to convey the potential of transformation that may emerge from the many connecting passageways between, for instance, people and society, theory and practice, knowledge created by diverse disciplines and fields/professions, individual and collective transformations, and individual and social action.

This book focuses on social transformations as one of the central topics in the social sciences. The study of European social transformations is very valuable in the context of universal discussions within social sciences: explaining invariable, universal attributes of societies and examining changing attributes. The book consists of 20 chapters on European social transformations, written from the perspectives of distinguished scholars from such disciplines as economics, political science, educational science, geography, media and communication studies, public management and administration, social psychology and sociology. The temporal and spatial range of the book is wide, including such global changes as time-space compression, focusing particularly on change processes in Europe during the last two decades. The book consists of four main parts, beginning with an overview of the theoretical and methodological approaches, and then focusing separately on post-communist transformations, institutional drivers of social transformations in the European Union, and European transformations in the context of global processes. The book presents current theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches that complement the scientific literature on social transformations. This book is both an invaluable resource for scholars and an indispensable teaching tool for use in the classroom and will be of interest to students, academics, and policy-makers studying how this diverse region has changed over recent years.

Transforming the transformation? The East European Radical Right in the Political Process examines the significance of radical right parties, along with other organizations, in terms of their involvement in the political process of new democracies. This groundbreaking study highlights firstly the radical right’s interaction with other political actors, such as parties, governments and interest groups, in their respective countries. Secondly, the contributors analyze the effects of such interaction with regard to agenda setting and policies in "loaded" policy fields, namely minorities and immigration, law and order, religion, territorial issues and democratization. Through an examination of the role of radical right actors in political processes and an assessment of the resulting measurable outcomes, this book shows how policies, election results and regime changes indicate shifts away from the liberal-democratic order institutionalized in the course of post-Communist transformation. Offering a unique cross-national comparison of particular facets and themes, as well as in-depth analysis of country cases, this book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as scholars, of European politics and far right studies.

The European Union is widely held to suffer from a democratic deficit, and this raises a wider question: can democracy at all be applied to decision-making bodies beyond the nation state? Today, the EU is a highly complex entity undergoing profound changes. This book asks how the type of cooperation that the EU is based on can be explained; what are the integrative forces in the EU and how can integration at a supra-national level come about? The key thinkers represented in this volume stress that in order to understand integration beyond the nation state, we need new explanatory categories associated with deliberation because a supranational entity as the EU posesses far weaker and less well-developed means of coercion - bargaining resources - than do states. The most appropriate term to denote this is the notion of 'deliberative supranationalism'. This pioneering work, headed by major writers such as Habermas, Schlesinger and Bellamy, brings a new perspective to this key issue in contemporary politics and political theory.