Just read and highly recommend “Dewey’s Dream: Universities and Democracies in an Age of Education Reform” by Benson, Puckett, Harkavy. I came upon it in a keynote speech at a conference talking about http://www.imaginingamerica.org/. The speaker cited this passage: “The function of American Scholars to act as engaged ‘Public Intellectuals’ not as solipsistic scholastics engaged in intramural battles for power, prestige and cash within an ivory tower” (51).

It got me thinking about my own dissertation work and work in general on bridging academia and the public. The book takes up the issues of democracy as a way of life, where Dewey was on the right track, and where he fell short. They posit that his idea of schools as community centers was never realized, nor did he take it up again, after leaving Chicago. The authors discuss projects with UPenn and its community as taking up this vision, and their successes of building an educated, democratic community. In searching for a means of beginning, they decided upon a “school-based community health program” (89) and worked through issues of health as a means of building this community engagement to great success.

I turn from that to the issue of health and specifically food. A recent issue of the Nation was devoted to the notion of food democracy, and I think very much addresses what Dewey might have meant of democracy as a way of life. Here’s a passage from one of the articles:

At the same time, a new breed of eater is awakening to the fact that food is not just something of convenience, a balancing of flavor and calories and macronutrients, but part of a larger conversation about how our nation's democracy functions. For this generation, the idea that we can have a positive impact on the environment, a farmer's life, rural communities and the welfare of animals by what we choose to eat is only the beginning. Increasingly, Americans want to know where the food they eat comes from, how it was grown and who grew it, because they are beginning to understand the connection between our stomachs and our common destiny. http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921/murphy

The entire contents can be found here: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090921. Food (and health) I think speak particularly strongly to notions of democracy, for these are things we all hold in common, and in delving into them, we start to see connections between us all that are often so difficult to make. Recently, my wife and I hosted a small discussion group on the topic of food issues, and it branched off into environmental issues, immigration, race, wealth, ethics – the gamut of humanity and are interdependence was brought to light by thinking about what we eat and how it got to our table. Furthermore, the action of hosting this group – this small community, I believe is a bit of democracy as a way of life in action. We come together to be educated, to educate, to share concerns, and see how we can make change in our larger communities. These are small steps, but I think the sort of face to face interactions, the exchange of common signs and symbols, that lead to what Dewey would have thought of as a democratic way of living. What we share will be reflected in our voting, sure, but more importantly it will shape how we live, how we make connections to our actions, and how we interact with our world. – Nick