Presented by Hart House Literary and Library Committee

Consuming Schools: Commercialism and the End of Politics

Details: How can education maintain its democratic function in the face of commercial forces? Dr. Trevor Norris, Assistant Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, will discuss his new book, Consuming Schools: Commercialism and the End of Politics (released January 2011, University of Toronto Press) and explore questions around the political and pedagogical implications of consumerism within educational systems.

When: Thursday, February 24, 6:00-8:00 p.m., followed by a reception in the Music Room

Where: Hart House Library

Cost: Free

Praise for Consuming Schools: Commercialism and the End of Politics: 'School profiteers beware! Consuming Schools is that rare book that manages to shift the discussion of two topics at once—that of consumerism and that of school commercialism. Intervening in the critical literature on both subjects, Trevor Norris's book could not be more important for a deeper understanding of the social implications of the myriad private forces infiltrating the public sphere and, specifically, public schools. He draws from post-structuralism and critical theory to offer a powerful and thoughtful defence of public schools as sites for the making of an engaged critical citizenry. As Norris makes clear, in the commercial struggle over students and schools, the stakes are not only the possibility of a more genuine democracy but our very understandings of each other and ourselves.' - Kenneth Saltman, Department of Educational Policy Studies and Research, DePaul University

Book Description (from Amazon): The increasing prevalence of consumerism in contemporary society often equates happiness with the acquisition of material objects. Consuming Schools describes the impact of consumerism on politics and education and charts the increasing presence of commercialism in the educational sphere through an examination of issues such as school-business partnerships, advertising in schools, and corporate-sponsored curriculum. First linking the origins of consumerism to important political and philosophical thinkers, Trevor Norris goes on to closely examine the distinction between the public and the private sphere through the lens of twentieth-century intellectuals Hannah Arendt and Jean Baudrillard. Through Arendt's account of the human activities of labour, work, and action, and the ensuing eclipse of the public realm and Baudrillard's consideration of the visual character of consumerism, Norris examines how school commercialism has been critically engaged by in-class activities such as media literacy programs and educational policies regulating school-business partnerships.