Reflexive governance beyond government: The role of critical pedagogy schools in community resilience

Millions of people around the world live in conditions where governments are unwilling or unable to address their resilience challenges, so communities sometimes organise their own initiatives. Theory on reflexive governance zooms in on the role of governments rather than on reflexivity within communities. We investigate what factors trigger reflexive governance outside government to promote resilience in marginalised communities. We conduct case studies of parents’ associations of Jesuit critical pedagogy schools in Latin America. Most parents’ associations engage in first-order reflexivity, incrementally learning and adapting their community resilience initiatives. Some also engage in second-order reflexivity, leading to radical changes in narratives, activities, and resilience. We identify six triggers of reflexive governance: a powerful narrative of critical pedagogy, the safe space for reflexivity within parents’ associations, the supporting role of social capital for learning, contextual changes pressing for new resilience activities, and the accumulation of organisational and strategic capacities.