Conference Program
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
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Daily Overview |
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E.01. Bringing Elias Back To School (And Beyond): Figurational And Processual Perspectives On Education In Troubled Times Location: Scienze Politiche (CU002): Aula XI "Aldo Moro" Convenor(s): Lorenzo Pedrini (Università Milano-Bicocca, Italy); Luca Bifulco (Università Milano-Bicocca, Italy) | |
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Learning Detachment and Democracy: Understanding Students’ Emotional Responses to Climate and Citizenship Education with Elias UClouvain, France @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-536870145 1107305727 0 0 415 0;}@font-face {font-family:Aptos; panose-1:2 11 0 4 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:536871559 3 0 0 415 0;}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0cm; margin-right:0cm; margin-bottom:8.0pt; margin-left:0cm; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Aptos; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Aptos; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Aptos; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-font-kerning:1.0pt; mso-ligatures:standardcontextual; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}.MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; font-family:"Aptos",sans-serif; mso-ascii-font-family:Aptos; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Aptos; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Aptos; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}.MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:8.0pt; line-height:115%;}div.WordSection1 {page:WordSection1;} This contribution draws on Gilliam and Gullov’s demonstration of the school as a key site for the civilising process (2024), extending this approach to specifically focus on the learning of “detachment”. This article draws attention to the fact that, in his 1956 article of the same name, Elias introduces the continuum of human behaviour between involvement and detachment through the evolutions in human attitudes towards natural as compared to social events. Based on this, this article questions way schools approach the learning and teaching of contemporary crises, specifically climate education and citizenship education. It suggests that in both these curriculum areas, teaching is marked by attempts at Eliasian “detachment” and the evacuation of emotional engagement, in response to anticipated emotional reactions by students that are implicitly seen as problematic by educators (Bozec, 2018; Albion et al., 2025). In addition to education literature on the adequacy of these programmes and literature on the importance of affect in understanding democratic behaviour (Neuman et al., 2007; Neckel and Hasenfratz, 2021), this contribution draws on qualitative interviews in France and Belgium with young people themselves (age 10-17), to explore their perspective on involvement and detachment in this learning. Using this empirical approach, it asks whether the evacuation of emotional engagement in the pursuit of scientific, objective detachment in this learning has not contributed to the learning of disinterest, which may constitute a barrier to democratic engagement by young people. By extension, the article explores how the “civilised armour” (Elias, 2012) and the pursuit of “high levels of detachment or objectivity”(Elias, 1956, p. 240) that students learn at school might in fact encourage emotional responses to contemporary crises, such as disinterest or even resentment, that are in tension with the engagement necessary for democracy. | |