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Social Limits to Learning
Essays on the Archeology of Domination, Resistance, and Experience
Gottfried Mergner
Edited and with an Introduction by Marcel van der Linden
Translated from the German by William Templer
160 pages, 4 illus.
ISBN 978-1-84545-004-5 $135.00/£99.00 / Hb / Published (January 2005)
Description
At the heart of the historical and social sciences lies the remarkable gray area of learning processes. "Learning" is usually perceived as individual childhood development at home and at school and has been written about extensively. However, little is known about learning processes outside primary and secondary socialization although insight into these learning processes appears indispensable for an understanding of social changes or the lack thereof. On the basis of historical and current case studies, philosophical reflections, and critical commentaries, Mergner (1940–1999) opened up this important area through his "theory of social limits to learning," designed to explain not only why people accept or reject structures of domination but also why people trying to emancipate themselves nonetheless form and accept new structures of domination. This anthology presents Mergner's seminal work to the non-German speaking world for the first time in order to give it the wider recognition it so clearly deserves.