Education for radical humanization in neoliberal times : a review of Paulo Freire’s later work

Abstract

With the posthumous publication of a number of his last writings, Paulo Freire’s oeuvre is almost complete. It therefore seems to be an appropriate time to take stock of Freire’s later work, to indicate, among other things, the light it sheds on the evolution of his thought and its significance in an age in which cynicism is rife. It seems to have become unfashionable, in this age, to dream of a world that is different from and better than the current one. Remaining steadfast, till the very end, to his cherished principles of radical humanization and democracy, Freire continued to produce work that provides resources of hope, agency, and reinvigoration in these neoliberal times. To many of us cultural workers, engaged in a constant search for emancipatory possibilities, his work stands as a crag of sanity facing the contemporary tide of nihilistic madness.