Schooling in the Age of Austerity: Urban Education and the Struggle for Democratic Life (New Frontiers in Education, Culture, and Politics)

Schooling in the Age of Austerity details how neoliberal privatization, austerity, and militarized policing are subverting the educative and human development capacity of urban public schools. Through a richly textured case study in a public high school in the city of Chicago, Means foregrounds the voices of educators and youth to create a vivid three-dimensional account of systemic violence and its devastating impact on public education and the security of young people at the margins of the new urban geography. Ultimately, despite the current challenges facing urban schools and communities, Means demonstrates that there exists a strong desire for change that can be built upon and nurtured in order to develop more ethical and restorative approaches to urban education and more equitable and democratic futures for young people.