A classic in the philosophy of education, considering the fundamental purpose and function of schools, translated into English for the first time.

This classic 1971 work on the fundamental purpose and function of schools belongs on the same shelf as other landmark works of the era, including Ivan Illich's Deschooling Society, Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and John Holt's How Children Fail. Nils Christie's If School Didn't Exist, translated into English for the first time, departs from these works by not considering schooling (and deschooling) as much as schools and their specific community and social contexts. Christie argues that schools should be proving grounds for how to live together in society rather than assembly lines producing future citizens and employees.

Nils Christie (1929-2015) was a Norwegian sociologist. Lucas Cone is a PhD Fellow at the Danish School of Education at Aarhus University. Joachim Wiewiura is a PhD Fellow in Philosophy at the Center for Information and Bubble Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

Foreword - Judith Suissa
The Public Life of Schools: Editors' Introduction -Lucas Lundbye Cone and Joachim S. Wiewiura
1. Schools in Society. Three case studies
2. Social Order and the Reactions of Young People
3. If Schools Didn't Exist
4. Power in Schools
5. A Different School
6. A Dream of a School
List of Key Agencies and Concepts
Notes
References
Index