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The Metamorphosis of Social Justice in the Present and the Future

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Understanding Social Justice in Rural Education

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Abstract

Young people in rural places experience a lack of opportunities for further and higher education and employment that often means they have to leave their communities. This chapter examines and problematizes the different decisions and tensions for individuals and communities, including identifying social divisions within the rural town (e.g. who leaves and who stays). If in the present time and space of rural schooling participants articulate a discourse of equality, confronted with a future of uncertainty and moving away from the community, the idea of social justice metamorphoses to the notion of merit. Without the security of rural schooling and community, the narrative shifts and participants adopt a discursive position more aligned with neoliberal sensibilities involving ideas of choice, self-realization, and individual responsibility.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Youth Research Centre, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia

    Hernán Cuervo

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  1. Hernán Cuervo
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Cuervo, H. (2016). The Metamorphosis of Social Justice in the Present and the Future. In: Understanding Social Justice in Rural Education. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50515-6_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50515-6_6

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-137-50514-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-50515-6

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