ABSTRACT
This chapter explores four themes as indicative of each author's perspective on the nature of such 'unsettling' times: narratives of freedom, critical intellectual thought, public and private spheres and education for democratic citizenship. Like Karl Mannheim, the authors concern themselves with the social significance of the dominance of particular interest groupings for participatory democratic citizenship. When reading the contributions of Giroux, Whitty and Kenway, one becomes aware of the importance of cross-national comparisons for the study of social change. The forms of democratic citizenship implied by each author refer to the rights to engage in critical intellectual thought, involvement in educational policy decision-making and the struggle for social justice in unequal hierarchical societies. The extent to which these rights can be sustained and how they should be sustained depends on how the 'narrative of freedom' is constructed.
