Engineering civility: steeling global citizenship education’s democratic resolve against nihilism and for civil repair

This article introduces two concepts from contemporary social-theory to Global Citizenship Education (GCED) to offer ways of thinking about teaching and learning in the face of anti-democratic politics. The first part discusses such politics in relation to GCED which, in its critical and liberal modes, seeks to instil confidence in democratic ideals. The second part delineates Wendy Brown’s critique of ‘nihilism’ and Jeffrey Alexander’s idea of ‘civic repair’ to establish, in the third part, how these concepts are generative for GCED’s ways of combating anti-democracy in the present and future. The paper argues that nihilism is a keen diagnosis of the current times and civil repair demonstrates precedents and lineages through which anti-democratic damage can be undone. As a piece of theoretical research, it shows how engaging with such thinking can help GCED’s advocates steel their resolve in cultivating civic engagement through critical reflection and political action.