ABSTRACT
In this introduction, we consider the contemporary significance and ongoing urgency of attention to public pedagogy. We introduce our theoretical approaches foregrounding the content contained in the following chapters. We emphasise the importance of recognising the productive and relational occurrences that entail a co-creation of knowledge in the public realm. We raise the question of what affordances are given to those who take up positions of authority in non-institutional settings. Further, our attention is drawn to the tenuous nature of those public spaces where authority and knowledge can be present. These spaces are often discounted by power as lacking authority. In these times, the significance of environmental change and the pandemic means the capacity for a public pedagogy that is attentive to these shifts is critical. We follow the course of the book providing a detailed account of each chapter with attention to the through lines of theoretical argument. In this introduction, we also highlight the main theoretical contributions made by the book in regard to the theorisation of ‘public’, ‘pedagogy’, ‘public pedagogy’ and ‘the educative agent’.
