Goldmeier, Gabriel; (2018) Social justice and citizenship education: reflective equilibrium between ideal theories and the Brazilian context. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Taking as a starting point the belief that Western societies live a period of normality/stability with regard to their general understanding of justice (based on consensual ideas of equal liberty, communal/national responsibility and democracy), the present thesis appeals to a reinterpretation of Rawlsian reflective equilibrium as the approach to improve justice in Brazil. An ideal-non-ideal equilibrium is outlined by this thesis; in addition, the developments of certain knowledge about civic virtues and how to cultivate them through formal education serve as important tools to favour the theoretical-practical equilibrium, only achieved in the public sphere. The debate on justice is structured upon the idea of (non-idealised) hypothetical social contract. Through appealing to economic, cultural and decision-making dimensions, this debate outlines an equilibrium between philosophical ideals of justices and historic, biological, economic and sociological empirical observations (as on human natural and cultural developments, as on specificities of Brazilian society). From this, a feasible theory of how to improve justice in Brazil is proposed, and seven important civic virtues to be cultivated in Brazilian people are suggested. Then, a new ideal-non-ideal equilibrium between philosophical ideals of how to develop five different levels of citizenship curriculum and empirical observations about how this curriculum is actually carried out in three different Brazilian schools is also outlined.

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