Reasons for writing this book

Culture warriors have been re-enforcing divisive and discriminatory attitudes and behaviours, posing disturbing threats to social solidarity. And progressive social movements have been facing mounting pushback in recent years, vilified through Far Right cultural warriors’ toxic attacks on the very basis of their claims for social justice, challenges that have been effectively re-enforcing rather than confronting racism, discrimination, exploitation and oppression. These ideological battles raise many questions for community education and development, questions that are particularly acute for those committed to the pursuit of strategies for transformative social change.

Cultural warriors fundamentally question the theoretical underpinnings of transformative approaches. Their perspective on cultures, identities and the development of critical consciousness are at odds with the contributions of key thinkers such as Paulo Freire, whose writings have had so much influence on the development of debates on adult community education and community development for social transformation. It is precisely these types of approaches that are most threatened in the contemporary context.

In addition, cultural warriors’ attitudes towards the colonial past pose major challenges. These need to be explored more broadly and set within the context of debates about decolonisation. The histories of slavery and colonialism have been central to the development of community education. These histories date back to the post-slavery reconstruction period in the United States through to the British government's strategies for decolonisation after the Second World War. Their impact continues to be felt today and so needs to be critically examined and re-evaluated. The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement has been centrally important here, drawing attention to the continuing legacies of slavery and colonialism in the context of Far Right and White supremacist ideologies in the US and internationally.

There is now a greater awareness of the shameful legacies of the past, with enhanced recognition of the continuing impact of slavery and colonisation in the contemporary context. Conversely, there has also been a significant backlash involving attempts to undermine such criticisms, to trivialise them as ‘woke’ or to deny their significance altogether.