A link to a talk about the role of markets in society and in education.

http://fm.schmoller.net/2013/02/drifting-from-having-a-market-economy-to-becoming-a-market-society-michael-sandel.html

I think it is no accident that two things have been happening over the past 30 years. One is that what we’ve discussed today: the tendency to rely more and more on market mechanisms without any public debate. And something else that’s been happening which is the hollowing out of public discourse in general. What passes for political discourse these days consists mainly of shouting matches on talk radio and cable TV, and ideological food fights in congress. People are frustrated by this. I think one of the reasons for this is our reluctance to engage in serious public debate about big and controversial moral questions.

When he describes a market, he picks out examples where money is an agent. The idea gets extended into ways we think. This would be an interesting piece to reflect on in the upcoming sessions on differentiation and for making thinking visible.

Advertisement