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made by several critics on the Left of the political spectrum, that our age
is one of increasingly strident dissent (see, for example, Hardt and Negri's
(2005) book
Multitude
). Millions of citizens worldwide, it's argued, now use
ICTs to challenge strongly 'official' and mainstream views of the world.
Still others take heart from citizens and non-governmental groups acting
politically of their own accord, and without too much reference to the con-
cerns of elected governments. An example is those trying to create transition
towns in the United Kingdom, which are intended to have a light ecological
footprint. Critics respond that these are all exceptions that prove the prover-
bial rule. Most citizens in democratic countries, they argue, are apathetic or
cynical about politics; even political protest is seen as ineffectual, express-
ing 'a dull ache of frustration at power being dispensed in [elite] corridors
rather than streets, at power that is ever further from [protestors']
...
grasp'
(Jenkins, 2011: 33).
BOX 3.5
As we saw in the previous box, democracies in both theory and prac-
tice require a public sphere if they are to be worthy of the name;
however, because any given public must function in conditions of epi-
stemic dependence, there's always the potential for its thinking to be
narrowed and shaped by powerful institutions and actors. The critical
theorist Henry Giroux has, in many of his published writings, used
the term
public pedagogy
to describe the way in which the citizens
of modern democracies are 'schooled' by everything from soap operas,
product labels and billboards to news broadcasts, television documen-
taries and the speeches of political leaders. The term 'pedagogy' is
normally associated with the profession of teaching and with educa-
tional institutions. Giroux's key point, however, is that pedagogy is
amuch
wider
and
never-ending
process that transcends formal school-
ing. He's been especially critical of the 'weak' and 'pseudo' publics
to be found in the United States. I say publics in the plural because,
following Oskar Negt and Alexander Kluge's (1972/1993) critique of
Jurgen Habermas's writings, Giroux argues that citizens increasingly
occupy
different
'public spheres'. The majority of people, he argues,
have neither the time, inclination nor opportunity to get beyond the
simplistic, superficial and often salacious diet fed to them by main-
stream institutions. What's more, Giroux argues that this diet secretes
a 'hidden curriculum' of norms that people are encouraged to imbibe,
usually unthinkingly. This leads to 'manufactured publics' in whose
name things are done as if they represented '
the
public' in the singular
sense. By contrast, those minorities whose values and aspirations lie
