Playground Futurities and Micro-Utopias

Abstract

This chapter begins in Reggio Emilia, a city in Italy famous for its democratic and aesthetically-attuned early childhood education. The Fascist history of Italy is part of what produced the Reggio Emilia approach, and Stephanie and Jim ask the question – what is justice-oriented teacher education in response to if not Fascism? They show us that perhaps even if the U.S. doesn’t have a dictator, we are often our own dictator, enforcing what Guattari calls “micro-fascisms” on ourselves and our youth. The chapter shows an example of a community-based learning center that aims to offer a space where grown-ups and young people alike engage in creative ways with the space, materials, and time to be differently, to shape their immediate present that it might be their own “micro-utopia.”