The role of inclusive communities in Dewey's quest for freedom

In this paper I address the question: why ought we create inclusive communities? My answer to that question situates inclusive communities with regard to their role in Dewey’s answer to what I call the “problem of unfreedom”: we are unfree, in large part because of the social and political conditions in which we find ourselves. We want to change those conditions in order to become free, but to do so requires the exercise of freedom. So, it seems that we must already be free in order to become free. I argue that inclusive communities play an essential role by developing and sustaining agency in the face of the constraints and challenges to our agency posed by the social and political conditions in which we find ourselves.