Rethinking Education for a More Cohesive World
Résumé
The neo-liberal policies that emerged in the 1980s with Thatcher and Reagan put economic profit before human well-being. Since then, the result has been growing inequalities within individual countries as well as at the global level. Currently, the richest 1% of humans (70 million) own half of the world’s wealth, or 2.7 million dollars each. The richest 20% (1.4 billion) own 95% of the wealth. This means that only 5% of this wealth is left for the remaining 80% (Langouët & Groux, 2018).
Social justice urgently requires a less unequal redistribution of wealth. It is becoming increasingly urgent to put in place a world of sharing that will finally oppose the confiscation of wealth for the benefit of tiny minorities. There is an urgent need to reconsider economic policies and to show that growth must no longer be an end in itself. Its direct consequence is global warming and the destruction of the natural wealth of our planet. It is leading humanity straight to the precipice.
What role can education play in this necessary ideological and ethical turnaround? How can we preserve our planet? What activities should be banned? How can we promote a balance between humans, reduce inequalities (in all its forms), develop social justice, and thereby generate social peace?
The present chapter will discuss different aspects of this global reflection that we could propose to the younger generations in order to make them more aware of the necessary revolution that they must lead in order to achieve a better, more just, and sustainable world.