ABSTRACT
Our term educative agent is introduced and expanded here together with the concepts of authority, power and agency. Of significance is the examination of authority, knowledge and power. We argue configurations of authority are institutional manifestations of knowledge. Drawing on Foucault's concept of parrhesia, the truth teller, we recognise this attribute in the educative agent as this person is situated outside of institutional determinants. The necessity for a public realm in which to exercise citizenship is critical to theories of democracy. However, in this valued and idealised space we argue for the necessity of attention to whose authority is recognised. Institutional power can position people as not having the capacity to contribute to aspects of the public realm. This positioning extends to whole communities and can be understood as a deficit reading. We examine the exercise of authority in settings such as public curation and exhibition, informal assemblies and public organisations. We look to the work we have undertaken in the Public Pedagogies Institute such as the Knowledge Project, Pop up Schools and public curatorial work in social history museums. This chapter re-positions both individuals and communities as taking carriage of knowledge.
