Art, Critical Pedagogy and Capitalism

This book offers a re-examination of art production through considering the process of learning as the production of art itself. It is an original text beginning with an account of what is seen as the politics of production of art of through Jacques Ranciere and brings together a new analysis of art practice as a critical pedagogic method of political emancipation. A reconsideration of hegemonic power through Chantel Mouffe’s concept of agonism alongside the development of A new term for understanding participatory or socially engaged art ‘Commitment to Involvement’ when investigating Paulo Freire. The book will influence the understanding of arts education delivery and the nature of art focussed on working with an engaged practice. Through an understanding of visual modernity –it demonstrates the intersectionality of contemporary art practice and the attempts to re-visualise ways of understanding that can think beyond the methods employed in arts production under neoliberalism. This is not a book on learning at a HE Institution, but an investigation of ways in which art practice is used to engage with critical pedagogy in relation to the commodity driven neoliberal agenda and a consideration of the relationships between learnt actions, societal actions and the commitment to involvement.
A radical rethinking of art making and an attempt to interrogate the paradox between the proliferation of the commodity of learning and the perceived crisis of arts education. As stated by the anonymous peer-review of the work arranged by Routledge in response to the timeliness of the research “it could be a go to text on art schools and capitalism.” (Anon Peer-Review attached) The aim being to rethink the subversive power of owning the process of learning as our own production – the consideration of being adversary ready. The target audience are across arts professionals, university students and curatorial and cultural practitioners.