Towards a society of equals: Dewey, Lippmann, the co

This article explores the wider critical and creative powers of education to bring about a society where no one person is valued more than another and where each person is celebrated for their differences – this the author calls the ‘society of equals’. It is argued that discourses of equality are not only co-extensive with democracy; they are co-extensive with co-operation and education. The extent to which equalities between people are limited to certain spheres of activity is also the limit to which democracy and co-operation are exercised in the affairs of everyday life. To what extent are democracy and co-operation evidenced in schools, colleges and universities – the supposedly privileged places for the development of people’s powers? In whose interests and for what purposes are those powers to be developed? And how may socially just democratic futures be realised through co-operative forms of education? The critical points at issue in answering these questions will be approached by exploring Dewey’s discussions of education and the democratic public in comparison to Lippmann’s views of the public and the role of elites, alongside the values and practices of the co-operative movement and the idea of the society of equals capable of undermining and replacing neo-liberal forms of schooling