Estranged but not alienated: A precondition of critical educational theory

Abstract

Alienation is a double-edged concept adaptable to both positive and negative or critical accounts of the individual, culture and society. It is also elastic enough to describe very different economical and cultural effects, and thus it is a potential source of confusion and inconsistency. Alienation is characterised by a Janus-faced adaptability to both neutral/positive and negative uses: the former may be considered as endemic, the latter as historical. In some respects alienation is neither avoidable in education nor wholly undesirable.