What is the point of open education? Uncontroversially, we might suggest that it is about widening participation; equalising access to education; and bringing about a fairer society. This is another way of stating that the main concern of open education is a kind of justice. For many social and political philosophers, justice has been understood as the defining goal [τέλος] of society and civilization. But this relationship between open education advocacy and the goal of social transformation remains remarkably underexplored and undertheorized. This presentation will explore this relationship and the idea of openness in contemporary discourses in education and politics. It will examine the use of the concept of openness in educational and political discourse and use the normative concept of an "open society" to explore the relationship between theory and practice in open education.
