Auf der Suche nach den „Analphabeten”

In his 1985 speech “Das Lob des Analphabeten” (Praise for the Illiterate), Hans Magnus Enzensberger addressed the stigmatisation of people who need basic education and the perceptible economic exploitability of knowledge and exertion of power over the “uneducated” by the literate, elite social classes since the Enlightenment. How does this apply to basic education in Austria? Is basic education (merely) a requirement for employability or something more? What image of a human being is concealed behind abstract concepts such as “functional illiteracy”? Has refusal of education become a criminal offence or is it essential in order to remain in command of oneself? In addition to asking these and other critical questions, the article presents a model of basic education that evades the current economisation and functionalisation of basic education: critical literacy. The author explains that the individual is not understood in the sense of neoliberal, pseudo-individual accusations and transfers of responsibility. Instead, critical literacy describes the individual as a capable subject who seeks to expand his or her existing opportunities for action. The Principles and Guidelines for Basic Education Offerings (Prinzipien und Richtlinien für Basisbildungsangebote in German) (2017) in Austria sees itself as contributing to the implementation of critical literacy in future programmes. (Ed.)