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A History of “Relevance” in PsychologyA History of “Relevance”

A History of “Relevance” in Psychology: A History of “Relevance” [Demands for “relevance” are confined neither to psychology nor to South Africa. This much is plainly evident in the appeal of the 1960s for educational “relevance,” made first by disaffected university students and taken up subsequently by their teachers (Rotenstreich 1972). On both sides of the Atlantic, emancipatory anti-capitalist sentiments that demanded reforms in knowledge production achieved particular resonance among the social sciences. Unusually, the inner circles of student activists were distinctly bourgeois (Boudon 1971): the young people that railed against the “irrelevance” of their educations were not the working-class victims of epistemic violence but, rather, a well-to-do generation scandalized by what they saw as the moral hypocrisy of preceding ones. Student protesters the world over were sympathizing, in effect, with those they deemed less privileged than themselves and, in an ironic reversal, began rubbishing the same institutions that had served their interests. In the rarefied atmosphere of higher learning, they had come to the conclusion that there was little on offer that could steel them for entry into a society traumatized by racism and war (Sampson 1970).] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

A History of “Relevance” in PsychologyA History of “Relevance”

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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2016. The author(s) has/have asserted their right(s) to be identified as the author(s) of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN
978-1-137-47488-9
Pages
17 –47
DOI
10.1057/978-1-137-47489-6_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[Demands for “relevance” are confined neither to psychology nor to South Africa. This much is plainly evident in the appeal of the 1960s for educational “relevance,” made first by disaffected university students and taken up subsequently by their teachers (Rotenstreich 1972). On both sides of the Atlantic, emancipatory anti-capitalist sentiments that demanded reforms in knowledge production achieved particular resonance among the social sciences. Unusually, the inner circles of student activists were distinctly bourgeois (Boudon 1971): the young people that railed against the “irrelevance” of their educations were not the working-class victims of epistemic violence but, rather, a well-to-do generation scandalized by what they saw as the moral hypocrisy of preceding ones. Student protesters the world over were sympathizing, in effect, with those they deemed less privileged than themselves and, in an ironic reversal, began rubbishing the same institutions that had served their interests. In the rarefied atmosphere of higher learning, they had come to the conclusion that there was little on offer that could steel them for entry into a society traumatized by racism and war (Sampson 1970).]

Published: Jun 24, 2016

Keywords: Executive Committee; Black Student; Western Psychology; Social Relevance; Frankfurt School

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