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Diagnosis of the Times: Tendencies in Education and Society
Diagnosis of the Times: Tendencies in Education and Society
Tuesday, 12 July 2016: 10:45-12:15
Location: Hörsaal 34 (Main Building)
RC07 Futures Research (host committee) Language: English
The session sets out to explore diagnosis of the times as an analysis strategy of diagnosing tendencies in current society. As the pace of change in society accelerates, diagnosis of the times becomes increasingly important as a tool of orientation in order to determining the tendencies in society. This is especially the case with education as education by definition is about preparing the new generation for living and working in future society. Thus, education appears to be a privileged field of diagnosis.
Diagnosis of the times can be traced back to the founding fathers of sociology and the intersection of philosophy and sociology. It is in the words of Foucault about looking for a difference: “What difference does today introduce with respect to yesterday?” That is, diagnosis is the precarious endeavor of interpreting indications in society (tendencies) of transformations of conditions of the times (that constitute today).
Despite the increased need and request of diagnosis of the times, there appears to be a lack of methodological reflection of this kind of analysis strategy with a few exceptions – notably sociologist Ulrich Beck and social-analyst Lars-Henrik Schmidt.
The session engages in the discussion hereof including on how diagnosis of the times differs from the description of society of social sciences and from projecting developmental trends and future scenarios of future studies. To illustrate, specific diagnosis of the relation of tendencies in education and society are presented and discussed.
Session Organizer: