svenska

om den pedagogiska funktionen av en granskningsprocess, om informellt lärande i civilsamhället och om möjligheten att yttra sig

Abstract

The price of housing - on the pedagogical function of a public audit, on informal learning in the civil society, and on the possibility of expressing an opinion

The article contains an analysis of parts of a formalized public audit of the proposed development of a local residential area in Sweden, involving i.a. the clearing of a small urban forest. The subject of the analysis is the comments received in the third out of three public reviews.

The empirical findings are analyzed in order to understand and explain the popular involvement in the audit as well as the expressed frustration that none of the people's comments had any impact on the final project.

The analysis sets out from Pierre Bourdieu's practice praxeology. Perspectives are also given to theories of/for informal learning in civil society, to Hannah Arendt's philosophy of the banality of evil (of bureaucracy), and to recent analyzes of developments in municipal housing policy, and of the social dynamics of the elite, its choice of education and place of residence. Finally, both the empirical theory of evaluations/evaluating practices and the sociology of representation developed by the author are implemented.

The public audit and the associated informal learning in civil society is part of a democratic ideal that the people keep the regime in check through certain formalized practices. However, the analysis shows that the audit, an intricate system of evaluating practices, serves to hinder the influence of the people, and that the local politicians and bureaucrats tend to give priority to the socially dominant (mainly economic) interests rather than serve the people. Similarly, any investigation related to the audit has the function of hindering the production of systematic knowledge. Consequently, existing dominant interests are taken into account at the expense of any other. Not only the natural basis exploited. Even the people is a resource for exploitation, facilitated by the municipality.