Distress in the City: Racism, Fundamentalism and a Democratic Education

Every day brings news about so-called Islamic State and its seduction of young people in the West. The radicalization of young Muslims causes alarm; even the desirability of multiculturalism is questioned in troubled cities where racism and Islamophobia are on the rise. This book is a case study of one distressed post-industrial city struggling with various discontents, drawn from those who live there. Their stories illuminate how racism, Islamophobia and Islamism take hold, rendering the city emblematic of wider problems across the world today. Through Linden West's holistic, psychosocial analysis, racism, Islamophobia and fundamentalism are understood by reference to growing inequality, mental illness and hopelessness, all within a context of fractured economies, malfunctioning democracies and the narrowing of education's purpose. But the author also describes the resources of hope in the city - the experiments in democratic education and the working class struggle against Nazi fundamentalism, the concern for the other - that inspire civic education in schools and communities today.