Revitalizing the Commons or an Individualized Approach to Planetary Citizenship: The Choice Before Us

The central idea of "The Choice Before Us" is that the Moacir Gadotti prescription for an ecopedagogy, which is supposed to lead to "one nation" and a "planetary consciousness," is based on many of the same liberal assumptions that underlie current efforts to globalize the West's industrial/consumer-based culture. In addition to examining the conceptual basis for the colonizing agenda of an ecopedagogy, which supposedly is to lead to a shared planetary consciousness as each individual undertakes the "grand journey" into "his interior universe," the educational reform implications of revitalizing the commons is given extended consideration. Contrary to the Gadotti vision of a global culture ("one nation" as Gadotti puts it), educational reforms that contribute to the revitalization of the commons (i.e., the nonmonetized and nonprivatized aspects of cultural and natural systems) are explained as the genuine forms of resistance to economic and technological globalization, and to slowing the destruction of natural systems. Contrary to what many leading educational theorists continue to claim, there is a choice before us, and both the cultures now resisting Western imperialism and an environment that is in crisis will force us to recognize it.