Paul Downes | Dublin City University (original) (raw)

Spatial Ecological Systems by Paul Downes

This book reconstructs the foundations of developmental and educational psychology and fills an i... more This book reconstructs the foundations of developmental and educational psychology and fills an important gap in the field by arguing for a specific spatial turn so that human growth, experience and development focus not only on time but space. This regards space not simply as place. Highlighting concrete cross-cultural relational spaces of concentric and diametric spatial systems, the book argues that transition between these systems offers a new paradigm for understanding agency and inclusion in developmental and educational psychology, and for relating experiential dimensions to causal explanations.

The chapters examine key themes for developing concentric spatial systemic responses in education, including school climate, bullying, violence, early school leaving prevention and students’ voices. Moreover, the book proposes an innovative framework of agency as movement between concentric and diametric spatial relations for a reconstruction of resilience. This model addresses the vital neglected issue of resistance to sheer cultural conditioning and goes beyond the foundational ideas of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, as well as Vygotsky, Skinner, Freud, Massey, Bruner, Gestalt and postmodern psychology to reinterpret them in dynamic spatial systemic terms.

Written by an internationally renowned expert, this book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of educational and developmental psychology, as well as related areas such as personality theory, health psychology, social work, teacher education and anthropology.

International Journal of Emotional Education, 2017

This article seeks to amplify Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979) concerns with concentric structured, nested... more This article seeks to amplify Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979) concerns with concentric structured, nested systems and phenomenology, for Ungar‘s (2012) extension of resilience to systems based on Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979, 1995) socio-ecological paradigm. Resilience rests on interconnected assumptions regarding space, agency and
system blockage, as well as the role of individual phenomenological dimensions. This article proposes a specific model of dynamic spatial systems of relation to underpin agency and phenomenology in resilience, building on a reinterpretation of Lévi-Strauss‘
(1962, 1963, 1973) cross-cultural observations of contrasts between concentric and
diametric spatial systems; space is a key bridge between material, symbolic and interpersonal domains of relevance for resilience. Agency in resilience is interpreted in terms of movement between concentric and diametric spatial systems at social and school microsystem levels, as well as for individual phenomenology. Space is not just an
object of analysis but an active constituent part of educational and developmental processes pertaining to resilience, as a malleable background contingent condition for causal trajectories. This framework of spatial-relational agency shifts focus for resilience from bouncing back into shape, towards transition points in space, moving from
diametric spaces of splitting to concentric spatial relations of assumed connection across different system levels.

Psihološka istraživanja (Psychological Research), 2017

Against the background of the EU2020 headline target of reducing early school leaving to 10% acro... more Against the background of the EU2020 headline target of reducing early school leaving to 10% across Europe, this article examines the conceptual foundations of the understanding of inclusive systems for early school leaving prevention
that has emerged in EU policy documents and research reports in recent years.
Traditionally, inclusive education has referred to a focus on children with special educational needs. However, this conceptual review examines how inclusion is
increasingly being examined in broader terms.This review seeks to critically reconstruct foundational understandings of systems and resilience in developmental
and educational psychology. A systems focus on inclusion needs to address the
neglect in psychology of system blockages and power imbalances. Resilience is
typically framed as the capacity of the individual to navigate their way to environmental resources. This places the onus of accessibility onto the individual’s
efforts rather than a concern with responsive systems accessible to marginalised
groups. A concern with inclusive systems goes beyond not only the well-established framework of individual resilience in developmental psychology, but also
beyond its expansion into resilient systems, as these omit a focus on outreach and
multidisciplinary teams in systems of care for integrated services. Common principles for a framework of inclusive systems include children’s voices, equality and
non-discrimination, parental involvement that is integrated holistically with family support, and lifelong learning principles for schools. Illustrative examples of these principles for reforming authoritarian teaching and discriminatory bullying,
for opening schools to the local community and for targeting those with highest
levels of need are highlighted.

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2016

Lifelong Learning Book Series, Series Editors: Aspin, David N., Chapman, Judith D. Dordrecht, Springer Verlag. Foreword by Sue Waddington, President, European Adult Education Association (EAEA) 2008-2013, 2013

This book identifies key elements of an international framework to develop systems-level change t... more This book identifies key elements of an international framework to develop systems-level change to promote access to education, including higher education, for socio-economically marginalized groups. It is based on interviews with senior government officials and senior management in universities, non formal education and prisons across 12 countries in Europe. The book identifies systemic obstacles to and opportunities for promotion of access to education for socio-economically excluded groups that are issues transferable to other countries’ contexts. It adopts a systemic focus on access across a range of domains of education, both formal higher education and non-formal education, as well as prison education. Through a focus on a more dynamic structuralist systems framework it develops an innovative post-Bronfenbrennerian view of system levels in lifespan developmental and educational psychology. It also develops an international agenda for reform in relation to these various system levels for access to education for socio-economically marginalized groups, through extraction of key structural indicators to evaluate reform progress in a transparent, culturally sensitive manner. The book identifies current gaps and strengths in policy, practice and structures that impact upon access to education, including higher education, across a range of countries. These gaps and strengths are illustrative and are to inform a strategic approach to system level change and development for the promotion of access to education for socio-economically marginalized groups in Europe and beyond.

Irish Journal of Anthropology, Spring/Summer Volume, 2014

Change to diametric structured oppositions was a key preoccupation of both Lévi-Strauss’ interrog... more Change to diametric structured oppositions was
a key preoccupation of both Lévi-Strauss’ interrogation of
myths and Freud’s understanding of obsessional neurosis.
Based on Downes (2012), recovery can be reinterpreted
in depth psychological terms as movement from such
diametric spaces of exclusion and towards contrasting
concentric spaces underpinning experience. Governing
myths, organising collective meaning in Irish society, have
included nationalism, Catholicism and the ‘Celtic Tiger’.
Important features of each of these have arguably been
locked within a diametric framing structure of exclusion.
Growth in Irish society requires not simply new myths but
new structures of myth beyond diametric ones.

European Journal of Education, Special Issue: Problematising the Issue of Early School Leaving in the European Context., 2013

Educational Philosophy and Theory , 2018

There is a danger that transition becomes a concept that aids the official reality of a school or... more There is a danger that transition becomes a concept that aids the official reality of a school or education system to mask the unofficial system difficulties. This article distinguishes four very different understandings of transitions that underpin research in education on this issue. Going beyond a typical systems framework for understanding transitions, frequently, it is not the change features associated with transition that are the key issue. Rather it is the stability issues, the residual background environmental conditions that require change. Fundamental problems become glossed over through attributing problematic features to transition rather than background environmental stasis. Four different meanings of transition include: System mismatch where at least one system needs reform—the transition bridge is not the problem; Transition represented as system mismatch between two purportedly well-functioning areas displaces the problem as being one of contrast rather than system quality; Transition as a system blockage and fragmentation in communication between transition environments; A transition strategic focus on individual change to the foregrounded child through supports in moving from background environment A to B. Spatial metaphors of bridge and yo-yo are used to aid temporal understanding of transitions. Nevertheless, this masks the need for a further spatial interrogation into background conditions sustaining systemic processes and practices.

European Journal of Education, 2018

European Journal of Education, 2018

Spatial Phenomenology by Paul Downes

Eighth Monograph in Resilience and Health by the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, University of Malta

This book seeks a fundamental shift in spatial systems of experience and understanding that gove... more This book seeks a fundamental shift in spatial systems of experience and understanding that govern basic assumptions of Western modernist traditions reliant on empty space and diametric spatial oppositions. A shift towards concentric relational spaces of assumed connection and relative openness for experience and thought is proposed for psychology, as well as social and emotional education. To do so requires interrogation of concepts usually peripheral to psychology, such as othering, the iron cage, fear of freedom. as well as integration of depth psychology with social and emotional education in cross-cultural, spatial terms. Space is being treated as both a domain of analysis and a method of interpretation, as part of this proposed interdisciplinary paradigm shift for psychology, education, and the humanities and social sciences more widely.

Paper based on presentation to London Bi-Logic Group, Conway Hall, Bertrand Russell Room, March 29th 2014

This article seeks to develop Matte-Blanco's bilogic of symmetry and asymmetry through a specific... more This article seeks to develop Matte-Blanco's bilogic of symmetry and asymmetry through a specific spatial logic, a bi-spatial logic overlooked by Matte-Blanco. This article argues that Matte-Blanco's well-known theory of symmetry for the unconscious is incomplete and requires extension in specific spatial structural terms. Firstly, an argument is made to encompass an understanding of Matte-Blanco's symmetry in concentric spatial terms and an alternative understanding of symmetry in diametric spatial terms. In doing so and to adequately address Freud's concept of no negation, Matte-Blanco's understanding of symmetry needs to encompass a mirror image symmetry in diametric space that is not equivalent to his own model of symmetry. Concentric space offers a model of whole-part interchangeability and containment that is consistent with symmetry and relevant to Freud's understanding of condensation and displacement. A second extension is to encompass an understanding of Matte-Blanco's indivisible whole in concentric spatial terms and divisible aspect in diametric spatial terms. The implications of these spatial interpretations for Matte-Blanco's purportedly foundational concepts are examined. A number of contradictions in Matte-Blanco's work can be reconciled through this bi-spatial logic, once distinctions in different levels of space, structure and function are recognised.

Concentric Space as a Life Principle Beyond Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur invites a fresh v... more Concentric Space as a Life Principle Beyond Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur invites a fresh vision of human experience and search for life meanings in terms of potential openings through relational space. Offering a radical spatial re-reading of foundational ideas of influential thinkers, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur, it argues that these ideas can be re-thought for a more fundamental understanding of life, self and other.

This book offers a radical reconceptualization of space as an animating principle for life through common though previously hidden features across the thought of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur. It offers a fresh spatial interpretation of key themes in these thinkers’ works, such as compassion, will to life, Dionysian rapture, will to power, selfovercoming, re-valuation of values, eternal recurrence, living metaphor and intersubjectivity. It proposes a spatial restructuring of experience from diametric spaces of exclusion towards concentric spaces of inclusion for an experiential restructuring towards unifying modes of experience. This spatial rereading of these major figures in philosophy directly challenges many previous understandings, to offer a distinctive spatial phenomenological framework for examining a life principle.

This book will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduates engaged in the study of the philosophy, education, wellbeing and human development. The book’s interdisciplinary scope ensures that it is also of interest for those in the fields of psychology, anthropology, psychoanalysis and culture studies.

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2018

Enrahonar: An International Journal of Theoretical and Practical Reason, 2017

Ricoeur Studies/Etudes Ricoeuriennes, 2016

Neuroquantology, An Interdisciplinary Journal of Neuroscience and Quantum Physics, 2016

Pauli (1949) postulated a neutral bridge language between the physical and psychological world bu... more Pauli (1949) postulated a neutral bridge language between the physical and psychological world but left this idea underdeveloped. This article proposes a candidate neutral bridge language between quantum physics and neuropsychology in terms of specific contrasting spaces, concentric and diametric spaces. Concentric and diametric spaces are explored in terms of symmetry, assumed connection and separation, as well as relatively open and closed systems of foreground-background interaction. Structural commonalities are highlighted between these concentric and diametric spaces and aspects of quantum physics, such as Pauli’s Exclusion Principle and antiparticles, as well as in neuropsychology, for mirror neurons. Such structural commonalities are not to reduce this proposed spatial-phenomenological bridge language to either the quantum physical or neuropsychological level.

Constructivist Foundations, 2015

Open peer commentary on the article “Towards a PL-Metaphysics of Perception: In Search of the Met... more Open peer commentary on the article “Towards a PL-Metaphysics of Perception: In Search of the Metaphysical Roots of Constructivism” by Konrad Werner. Upshot: Key aspects of Werner’s concerns involve overcoming dualisms. This presupposes an implicit spatial preunderstanding that is neglected in Werner and needs amplification. Diametric and concentric spatial-relational frames for cognition and perception offer a supporting framework for Werner’s interrogation of constructivist roots, to go beyond Cartesian metaphysics and to concretise difference that is not mere dualistic separation.

This book argues that a silent axis of the unconscious world rests largely undiscovered. It recas... more This book argues that a silent axis of the unconscious world rests largely undiscovered. It recasts foundational concepts in the psychology of Freud, Jung, Carol Gilligan and R.D. Laing, as well as in cognitive science, to highlight this hidden unconscious axis: primordial spaces of diametric and concentric structures. The author generates fresh approaches to understanding the philosophy of early Heidegger and Derrida, with the idea of cross-cultural diametric and concentric spaces fuelling a radical reinterpretation of early Heidegger’s transcendental project, and challenging a postmodern consensus that reduces truths and experiences to mere socially constructed playthings of culture.
The book, which also examines projected structures in modernist art, suggests a systematic refashioning of many Western assumptions, but it is more than a deconstruction. It also attempts to offer a new interplay between structures and meaning, as a spatial phenomenology. This significant expansion of the boundaries of human subjectivity opens alternative pathways for imagining what it means to be human, in order to challenge the reduction of experience to instrumental reason.

This book reconstructs the foundations of developmental and educational psychology and fills an i... more This book reconstructs the foundations of developmental and educational psychology and fills an important gap in the field by arguing for a specific spatial turn so that human growth, experience and development focus not only on time but space. This regards space not simply as place. Highlighting concrete cross-cultural relational spaces of concentric and diametric spatial systems, the book argues that transition between these systems offers a new paradigm for understanding agency and inclusion in developmental and educational psychology, and for relating experiential dimensions to causal explanations.

The chapters examine key themes for developing concentric spatial systemic responses in education, including school climate, bullying, violence, early school leaving prevention and students’ voices. Moreover, the book proposes an innovative framework of agency as movement between concentric and diametric spatial relations for a reconstruction of resilience. This model addresses the vital neglected issue of resistance to sheer cultural conditioning and goes beyond the foundational ideas of Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, as well as Vygotsky, Skinner, Freud, Massey, Bruner, Gestalt and postmodern psychology to reinterpret them in dynamic spatial systemic terms.

Written by an internationally renowned expert, this book is a valuable resource for academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the areas of educational and developmental psychology, as well as related areas such as personality theory, health psychology, social work, teacher education and anthropology.

International Journal of Emotional Education, 2017

This article seeks to amplify Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979) concerns with concentric structured, nested... more This article seeks to amplify Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979) concerns with concentric structured, nested systems and phenomenology, for Ungar‘s (2012) extension of resilience to systems based on Bronfenbrenner‘s (1979, 1995) socio-ecological paradigm. Resilience rests on interconnected assumptions regarding space, agency and
system blockage, as well as the role of individual phenomenological dimensions. This article proposes a specific model of dynamic spatial systems of relation to underpin agency and phenomenology in resilience, building on a reinterpretation of Lévi-Strauss‘
(1962, 1963, 1973) cross-cultural observations of contrasts between concentric and
diametric spatial systems; space is a key bridge between material, symbolic and interpersonal domains of relevance for resilience. Agency in resilience is interpreted in terms of movement between concentric and diametric spatial systems at social and school microsystem levels, as well as for individual phenomenology. Space is not just an
object of analysis but an active constituent part of educational and developmental processes pertaining to resilience, as a malleable background contingent condition for causal trajectories. This framework of spatial-relational agency shifts focus for resilience from bouncing back into shape, towards transition points in space, moving from
diametric spaces of splitting to concentric spatial relations of assumed connection across different system levels.

Psihološka istraživanja (Psychological Research), 2017

Against the background of the EU2020 headline target of reducing early school leaving to 10% acro... more Against the background of the EU2020 headline target of reducing early school leaving to 10% across Europe, this article examines the conceptual foundations of the understanding of inclusive systems for early school leaving prevention
that has emerged in EU policy documents and research reports in recent years.
Traditionally, inclusive education has referred to a focus on children with special educational needs. However, this conceptual review examines how inclusion is
increasingly being examined in broader terms.This review seeks to critically reconstruct foundational understandings of systems and resilience in developmental
and educational psychology. A systems focus on inclusion needs to address the
neglect in psychology of system blockages and power imbalances. Resilience is
typically framed as the capacity of the individual to navigate their way to environmental resources. This places the onus of accessibility onto the individual’s
efforts rather than a concern with responsive systems accessible to marginalised
groups. A concern with inclusive systems goes beyond not only the well-established framework of individual resilience in developmental psychology, but also
beyond its expansion into resilient systems, as these omit a focus on outreach and
multidisciplinary teams in systems of care for integrated services. Common principles for a framework of inclusive systems include children’s voices, equality and
non-discrimination, parental involvement that is integrated holistically with family support, and lifelong learning principles for schools. Illustrative examples of these principles for reforming authoritarian teaching and discriminatory bullying,
for opening schools to the local community and for targeting those with highest
levels of need are highlighted.

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2016

Lifelong Learning Book Series, Series Editors: Aspin, David N., Chapman, Judith D. Dordrecht, Springer Verlag. Foreword by Sue Waddington, President, European Adult Education Association (EAEA) 2008-2013, 2013

This book identifies key elements of an international framework to develop systems-level change t... more This book identifies key elements of an international framework to develop systems-level change to promote access to education, including higher education, for socio-economically marginalized groups. It is based on interviews with senior government officials and senior management in universities, non formal education and prisons across 12 countries in Europe. The book identifies systemic obstacles to and opportunities for promotion of access to education for socio-economically excluded groups that are issues transferable to other countries’ contexts. It adopts a systemic focus on access across a range of domains of education, both formal higher education and non-formal education, as well as prison education. Through a focus on a more dynamic structuralist systems framework it develops an innovative post-Bronfenbrennerian view of system levels in lifespan developmental and educational psychology. It also develops an international agenda for reform in relation to these various system levels for access to education for socio-economically marginalized groups, through extraction of key structural indicators to evaluate reform progress in a transparent, culturally sensitive manner. The book identifies current gaps and strengths in policy, practice and structures that impact upon access to education, including higher education, across a range of countries. These gaps and strengths are illustrative and are to inform a strategic approach to system level change and development for the promotion of access to education for socio-economically marginalized groups in Europe and beyond.

Irish Journal of Anthropology, Spring/Summer Volume, 2014

Change to diametric structured oppositions was a key preoccupation of both Lévi-Strauss’ interrog... more Change to diametric structured oppositions was
a key preoccupation of both Lévi-Strauss’ interrogation of
myths and Freud’s understanding of obsessional neurosis.
Based on Downes (2012), recovery can be reinterpreted
in depth psychological terms as movement from such
diametric spaces of exclusion and towards contrasting
concentric spaces underpinning experience. Governing
myths, organising collective meaning in Irish society, have
included nationalism, Catholicism and the ‘Celtic Tiger’.
Important features of each of these have arguably been
locked within a diametric framing structure of exclusion.
Growth in Irish society requires not simply new myths but
new structures of myth beyond diametric ones.

European Journal of Education, Special Issue: Problematising the Issue of Early School Leaving in the European Context., 2013

Educational Philosophy and Theory , 2018

There is a danger that transition becomes a concept that aids the official reality of a school or... more There is a danger that transition becomes a concept that aids the official reality of a school or education system to mask the unofficial system difficulties. This article distinguishes four very different understandings of transitions that underpin research in education on this issue. Going beyond a typical systems framework for understanding transitions, frequently, it is not the change features associated with transition that are the key issue. Rather it is the stability issues, the residual background environmental conditions that require change. Fundamental problems become glossed over through attributing problematic features to transition rather than background environmental stasis. Four different meanings of transition include: System mismatch where at least one system needs reform—the transition bridge is not the problem; Transition represented as system mismatch between two purportedly well-functioning areas displaces the problem as being one of contrast rather than system quality; Transition as a system blockage and fragmentation in communication between transition environments; A transition strategic focus on individual change to the foregrounded child through supports in moving from background environment A to B. Spatial metaphors of bridge and yo-yo are used to aid temporal understanding of transitions. Nevertheless, this masks the need for a further spatial interrogation into background conditions sustaining systemic processes and practices.

European Journal of Education, 2018

European Journal of Education, 2018

Eighth Monograph in Resilience and Health by the Centre for Resilience and Socio-Emotional Health, University of Malta

This book seeks a fundamental shift in spatial systems of experience and understanding that gove... more This book seeks a fundamental shift in spatial systems of experience and understanding that govern basic assumptions of Western modernist traditions reliant on empty space and diametric spatial oppositions. A shift towards concentric relational spaces of assumed connection and relative openness for experience and thought is proposed for psychology, as well as social and emotional education. To do so requires interrogation of concepts usually peripheral to psychology, such as othering, the iron cage, fear of freedom. as well as integration of depth psychology with social and emotional education in cross-cultural, spatial terms. Space is being treated as both a domain of analysis and a method of interpretation, as part of this proposed interdisciplinary paradigm shift for psychology, education, and the humanities and social sciences more widely.

Paper based on presentation to London Bi-Logic Group, Conway Hall, Bertrand Russell Room, March 29th 2014

This article seeks to develop Matte-Blanco's bilogic of symmetry and asymmetry through a specific... more This article seeks to develop Matte-Blanco's bilogic of symmetry and asymmetry through a specific spatial logic, a bi-spatial logic overlooked by Matte-Blanco. This article argues that Matte-Blanco's well-known theory of symmetry for the unconscious is incomplete and requires extension in specific spatial structural terms. Firstly, an argument is made to encompass an understanding of Matte-Blanco's symmetry in concentric spatial terms and an alternative understanding of symmetry in diametric spatial terms. In doing so and to adequately address Freud's concept of no negation, Matte-Blanco's understanding of symmetry needs to encompass a mirror image symmetry in diametric space that is not equivalent to his own model of symmetry. Concentric space offers a model of whole-part interchangeability and containment that is consistent with symmetry and relevant to Freud's understanding of condensation and displacement. A second extension is to encompass an understanding of Matte-Blanco's indivisible whole in concentric spatial terms and divisible aspect in diametric spatial terms. The implications of these spatial interpretations for Matte-Blanco's purportedly foundational concepts are examined. A number of contradictions in Matte-Blanco's work can be reconciled through this bi-spatial logic, once distinctions in different levels of space, structure and function are recognised.

Concentric Space as a Life Principle Beyond Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur invites a fresh v... more Concentric Space as a Life Principle Beyond Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur invites a fresh vision of human experience and search for life meanings in terms of potential openings through relational space. Offering a radical spatial re-reading of foundational ideas of influential thinkers, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur, it argues that these ideas can be re-thought for a more fundamental understanding of life, self and other.

This book offers a radical reconceptualization of space as an animating principle for life through common though previously hidden features across the thought of Schopenhauer, Nietzsche and Ricoeur. It offers a fresh spatial interpretation of key themes in these thinkers’ works, such as compassion, will to life, Dionysian rapture, will to power, selfovercoming, re-valuation of values, eternal recurrence, living metaphor and intersubjectivity. It proposes a spatial restructuring of experience from diametric spaces of exclusion towards concentric spaces of inclusion for an experiential restructuring towards unifying modes of experience. This spatial rereading of these major figures in philosophy directly challenges many previous understandings, to offer a distinctive spatial phenomenological framework for examining a life principle.

This book will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduates engaged in the study of the philosophy, education, wellbeing and human development. The book’s interdisciplinary scope ensures that it is also of interest for those in the fields of psychology, anthropology, psychoanalysis and culture studies.

Educational Philosophy and Theory, 2018

Enrahonar: An International Journal of Theoretical and Practical Reason, 2017

Ricoeur Studies/Etudes Ricoeuriennes, 2016

Neuroquantology, An Interdisciplinary Journal of Neuroscience and Quantum Physics, 2016

Pauli (1949) postulated a neutral bridge language between the physical and psychological world bu... more Pauli (1949) postulated a neutral bridge language between the physical and psychological world but left this idea underdeveloped. This article proposes a candidate neutral bridge language between quantum physics and neuropsychology in terms of specific contrasting spaces, concentric and diametric spaces. Concentric and diametric spaces are explored in terms of symmetry, assumed connection and separation, as well as relatively open and closed systems of foreground-background interaction. Structural commonalities are highlighted between these concentric and diametric spaces and aspects of quantum physics, such as Pauli’s Exclusion Principle and antiparticles, as well as in neuropsychology, for mirror neurons. Such structural commonalities are not to reduce this proposed spatial-phenomenological bridge language to either the quantum physical or neuropsychological level.

Constructivist Foundations, 2015

Open peer commentary on the article “Towards a PL-Metaphysics of Perception: In Search of the Met... more Open peer commentary on the article “Towards a PL-Metaphysics of Perception: In Search of the Metaphysical Roots of Constructivism” by Konrad Werner. Upshot: Key aspects of Werner’s concerns involve overcoming dualisms. This presupposes an implicit spatial preunderstanding that is neglected in Werner and needs amplification. Diametric and concentric spatial-relational frames for cognition and perception offer a supporting framework for Werner’s interrogation of constructivist roots, to go beyond Cartesian metaphysics and to concretise difference that is not mere dualistic separation.

This book argues that a silent axis of the unconscious world rests largely undiscovered. It recas... more This book argues that a silent axis of the unconscious world rests largely undiscovered. It recasts foundational concepts in the psychology of Freud, Jung, Carol Gilligan and R.D. Laing, as well as in cognitive science, to highlight this hidden unconscious axis: primordial spaces of diametric and concentric structures. The author generates fresh approaches to understanding the philosophy of early Heidegger and Derrida, with the idea of cross-cultural diametric and concentric spaces fuelling a radical reinterpretation of early Heidegger’s transcendental project, and challenging a postmodern consensus that reduces truths and experiences to mere socially constructed playthings of culture.
The book, which also examines projected structures in modernist art, suggests a systematic refashioning of many Western assumptions, but it is more than a deconstruction. It also attempts to offer a new interplay between structures and meaning, as a spatial phenomenology. This significant expansion of the boundaries of human subjectivity opens alternative pathways for imagining what it means to be human, in order to challenge the reduction of experience to instrumental reason.

Psychology and Developing Societies, 2011

Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 2010

Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 2010

Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 2010

Cybernetics and Human Knowing, 2013

Journal of Analytical Psychology, 2003

This study analyses the development of policies and practice on reducing ESL after 2011, seeking ... more This study analyses the development of policies and practice on reducing ESL after 2011, seeking to assess the contribution of the 2011 Council Recommendation on Policies to Reduce Early School Leaving (henceforth the 2011 Recommendation) and associated EU policy instruments to the development of policy, practice and research on ESL across Europe. The study looks at the leverage of EU policy on tackling ESL over the actions taken by key stakeholders at EU level and explores the extent of any influence between MS on their respective approaches to reducing ESL. The study also seeks to assess the added value of EU policy to tackle ESL in the Member States, and investigates the relevance, impact, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the EU policy and tools on reducing ESL.

Foreword by Jan Truszczynski, Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate General f... more Foreword by Jan Truszczynski, Director-General of the European Commission’s Directorate General for Education and Culture. Brussels: European Commission, DG Education and Culture

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union/EU bookshop., 2017

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union/EU bookshop., 2018

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union/EU bookshop., 2016

European Union, European Regional Development Fund, Urbact Secretariat, Paris. , 2015

Lifelong Learning Book Series, Series Editors: Aspin, David N., Chapman, Judith D. Dordrecht, Springer Verlag., 2014

Foreword by Sue Waddington, President, European Adult Education Association (EAEA) (2008-2013).

European Union, European Regional Development Fund, Urbact Secretariat, Paris , 2014

Irish Education Studies , 2019

Journal of School Violence, 2018

While there is growing recognition of the need to distinguish between universal, selected, and in... more While there is growing recognition of the need to distinguish between universal, selected, and indicated prevention levels in school bullying and violence research, this more nuanced focus is far from being systematically applied in key research studies in this area internationally. This article raises concerns about the need for such a differentiated focus to address issues of bullying perpetrators’ different motivations to underpin critique of a peer defenders model. Such a peer defenders model conflates moderate risk (selected prevention) level of perpetrators’ motivations with those of chronic need (indicated prevention). A theoretical framework for selected prevention focusing on minority identity and discriminatory bullying is developed to incorporate a focus on inclusive systems and system blockage, building on social-ecological systems theory.

Child Indicators Research, 2018

Queen Mary Human Rights Law Review, 2016

A fundamental, neglected problem of relation to the individual and marginalised groups exists wit... more A fundamental, neglected problem of relation to the individual and marginalised groups exists within Hart's description of the foundational rule of recognition for legal systems. This article aims to establish the need for a relational foundationalism for law that engages with the concrete other, given the limitations of Hart's foundationalist account of the rule of recognition which assumes an abstract, generalised other. This leads to a focus on a contextual process of recognition, as a relation to the individual and marginalised groups, resonant with conceptions of Kantian dignity that treat a person as an end and not a means. Rejecting Teubner's non-foundationalist focus on communication, as well as Raz's reduction of the rule of recognition to include solely legal officials, it is argued that relational foundations of legal systems do not exist and are needed. A subsidiary argument is that the UN framework on the right to the highest attainable standard of health is a significant, though preliminary, step towards a relational foundationalism; it engages with the concrete other, providing indicators disaggregated by at least sex, race, ethnicity, rural/urban, and socioeconomic status, as well as a dialogical process of voice with the relevant community, including marginalised groups.

The voices of victims of human trafficking make direct, immediate and heart-rending pleas for ch... more The voices of victims of human trafficking make direct, immediate and heart-rending pleas for change.

Liverpool Law Review, 2007

English version. Legal Information Centre for Human Rights, Tallinn, Estonia , 2003

International Journal of Emotional Education, 2018

International Journal of Emotional Education, 2018

Pastoral Care in Education, 2018

European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2015

Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in post-secondary education particip... more Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in post-secondary education participation in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries. This increase, however, does not necessarily reflect a parallel equitable growth in post secondary education, and early school leaving is still an issue of concern in particular regions and countries across the world. This paper presents a study on increasing participation in post-secondary education in Malta, the country with the one of the highest proportions of early school leaving in the European Union. The study was carried out in a region with one of the highest rates of early school leaving in the country, making use of a phenomenological approach as well as a resilient systems perspective to early school leaving. On the basis of students’ narratives, the study identifies a number of risk and protective factors in early school leaving and makes various suggestions on how to build more resilient systems to facilitate access to post-secondary education, particularly for students coming from low socio-economic, excluded backgrounds.

Interpersona: International Journal on Personal Relationships, 2017

The phenomenon of devaluing of self for adolescent girls has been highlighted in previous qualita... more The phenomenon of devaluing of self for adolescent girls has been highlighted in previous qualitative research in a US cultural context. Carol Gilligan and her colleagues have documented a loss of connection to self and loss of voice. ‘Blending in’ pertains to such a loss of connection and voice. ‘Blending in’ emerges from many aspects of 8 Irish females’ retrospective qualitative phenomenological accounts of their adolescent experiences. These features of blending in include: a dumbing down of intellectual ability in order to fit in, a desire to be hidden in the group to ‘fade into the background’, to not stand out as being different, fear of being labelled by others and fear of challenging others. Blending in gives phenomenological support to Gilligan’s (1990) accounts of silencing and loss of relation to self in adolescent girls, to a rendering of self as other. This phenomenological exploration is resonant also with de Beauvoir’s Second Sex and to a loss of capacity for introversion in Western culture, echoing Jung (1921). Blending in requires firmer addressing in social and emotional education (SEE), especially regarding challenge to self-management as emotional impulse and behaviour regulation. Self-management as blending in risks being a process of loss of voice and alienation of self.

Volume 5. Brussels: Alliance for Childhood European Network Group, 2015

For early school leaving prevention, there is a need to go beyond Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 1995) i... more For early school leaving prevention, there is a need to go beyond
Bronfenbrenner’s (1979, 1995) influential focus on systems in developmental psychology, to scrutinise system blockages and the inertia hindering inclusive systems. Based on a review of international policy and research, such system blockages to communication include a lack of opportunity for voices of socio-economically excluded students at risk of early school leaving, and for emotional and mental health support. Developing such inclusive systems also requires a priority of investment for promoting teachers’ conflict resolution skills. For inclusive systems of care to challenge a system blockage of fragmentation, a focus is needed on developing cohesive multidisciplinary teams in and around schools rather than disparate services. For inclusive systems overcoming structures of exclusion requires alternatives to suspension and expulsion from school, as well as an attunement to issues of territory, and neutral spaces in a local community. The author of this paper recommends that the EU Commission, in conjunction with the EU Parliament, develop structural indicators for inclusive systems (at EU, national, regional, municipal and school levels), as part of meeting the EU2020 headline target for early school leaving prevention.

International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 2015

European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2012

International Journal of Emotional Education, 2011

Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny (International Journal of Education, Poland), 2008

Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny (International Journal of Education, Poland), 2004

Kwartalnik Pedagogiczny (International Journal of Education, Poland), 2003

Sustainable social development, Apr 10, 2024

Journal of prison education and reentry, Feb 23, 2016

European Journal of Psychology of Education, Aug 31, 2011

IntroductionThe concept of resilience in developmental and educational psychology rests on fundam... more IntroductionThe concept of resilience in developmental and educational psychology rests on fundamental spatial assumptions that require further interrogation. There is firstly a spatial preunderstanding or metaphor built into conceptions of resilience as a regaining of shape, a bouncing back into shape (Ungar 2005, 2015). The important broadening of resilience by Michael Ungar and his colleagues from the individual to include systemic dimensions as part of a cross-cultural understanding typically relies on Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1995) social-ecological systems approach which itself rests on other foundational assumptions regarding space. Ungar et al. (2007) observe "a shift in focus from individual characteristics to protective factors, and finally to health resources and assets in a child's community" that "has taken place in mostly western contexts" (p.288). Bronfenbrenner's (1979) framework assumes concentric structured spaces as nested systems of...

With early school leaving prevention being an agree d European Union headline target of 10% acros... more With early school leaving prevention being an agree d European Union headline target of 10% across the EU by 2020, emotional-relational dim ensions to education are gaining renewed attention in European education policy. Aga inst this backdrop, prominent criticisms of an emotional well-being agenda in edu cation by Ecclestone and Hayes require further consideration. The key objective of this paper is to challenge and reconstruct six key arguments of Ecclestone and Hay es gainst emotional wellbeing in education. There is a need to move beyond paradigms of conceptual coherence that rest upon diametric oppositions – thought/feeling, healt hy/sick, diminished/undiminished, optimism/pessimism, subject/negation of a subject, l arning/therapy. It is argued that an emotional well-being agenda in education is a conce ptually coherent one, once different levels of prevention and intervention are distingui shed and the argument goes beyond flat, undifferentiated conceptions of ‘therapeutic cul...

International evidence indicates that school systems need to change in order to tackle early scho... more International evidence indicates that school systems need to change in order to tackle early school leaving and improve social inclusion in education and society. Policy-makers and school actors require practical tools to assist them in this process, made all the more urgent by the EU2020 headline target to reduce early school leaving. This report develops such practical tools; it is designed to inform strategic policy and practice by offering an innovative framework of structural indicators for early school leaving prevention and inclusion in school. It draws upon key European Council and Commission policy documents on early school leaving prevention, and also on the Paris Declaration 2015 on promoting common values of freedom, tolerance and non-discrimination through education, which includes a focus on social marginalization.

Psiholoska istrazivanja, 2017

Interpersona: An International Journal on Personal Relationships, 2018

The phenomenon of devaluing of self for adolescent girls has been highlighted in previous qualita... more The phenomenon of devaluing of self for adolescent girls has been highlighted in previous qualitative research in a US cultural context. Carol Gilligan and her colleagues have documented a loss of connection to self and loss of voice. ‘Blending in’ pertains to such a loss of connection and voice. ‘Blending in’ emerges from many aspects of 8 Irish females’ retrospective qualitative phenomenological accounts of their adolescent experiences. These features of blending in include: a dumbing down of intellectual ability in order to fit in, a desire to be hidden in the group to ‘fade into the background’, to not stand out as being different, fear of being labelled by others and fear of challenging others. Blending in gives phenomenological support to Gilligan’s (1990) accounts of silencing and loss of relation to self in adolescent girls, to a rendering of self as other. This phenomenological exploration is resonant also with de Beauvoir’s Second Sex and to a loss of capacity for introver...

Pastoral Care in Education, 2018

Journal of School Violence, 2019

Études Ricoeuriennes / Ricoeur Studies, 2017

In La Métaphore Vive, spatial understandings pervade much of Ricoeur’s discussion of metaphor in ... more In La Métaphore Vive, spatial understandings pervade much of Ricoeur’s discussion of metaphor in terms of proximity and distance, tension, substitution, displacement, change of location, image, the ‘open’ structure of words, closure, transparency and opaqueness. Yet this is usually where space is discussed within metaphor, and as a metaphor itself, rather than as a precondition or prior system of relations to language interacting with language. Based on reinterpretation of an aspect of Lévi-Strauss’ structuralist anthropology, diametric and concentric spaces are argued to be such a prior system of relations to language, actively framing metaphor. This article examines the relevance of this prelinguistic spatial discourse to Ricoeur’s framework of metaphor and interrogation of the copula, influenced centrally by Heidegger . Concentric spatial assumed connection and diametric spatial assumed separation offer a framework for understanding, in Ricoeur’s words, the “conflict between iden...

Enrahonar. Quaderns de filosofia, 2017

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry, 2016

International Journal of Early Childhood Special Education, 2015

European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2015

Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in post-secondary education particip... more Over the past decades, there has been a substantial increase in post-secondary education participation in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Union countries. This increase, however, does not necessarily reflect a parallel equitable growth in post-secondary education, and early school leaving is still an issue of concern in particular regions and countries across the world. This paper presents a study on increasing participation in post-secondary education in Malta, the country with the one of the highest proportions of early school leaving in the European Union. The study was carried out in a region with one of the highest rates of early school leaving in the country, making use of a phenomenological approach as well as a resilient systems perspective to early school leaving. On the basis of students’ narratives, the study identifies a number of risk and protective factors in early school leaving and makes various suggestions on how to build more resilient systems to facilitate access to post-secondary education, particularly for students coming from low socio-economic, excluded backgrounds.

Derrida Today, 2013

Derrida's work encompasses dynamic spatial dimensions to understanding as a pervasive theme, ... more Derrida's work encompasses dynamic spatial dimensions to understanding as a pervasive theme, including the search for a ‘new psychoanalytic graphology’ in Writing and Difference. This preoccupation with a spatial text for repression also occurs later in Archive Fever. Building on Derrida, this paper seeks to develop key aspects of a new dynamic psychoanalytic graphology through diametric and concentric interactive spatial relation. These spatial movements emerge from a radical reconstruction of a neglected aspect of structural anthropologist Lévi-Strauss’ work on spatial relations prior to myth. This psychoanalytic graphology is argued to silently pervade Freud's own direct accounts of repression. This graphological domain is developed through diametric and concentric spatial movements across common concerns of Derrida and Freud such as inversions, interruption and restoration, regarding traces in the unconscious. A spatial text is uncovered for diverse features of Freudian ...