Errors by Simpson and Dervin (2019) in their description of the council of Europe's reference framework of competences for democratic culture

Abstract

In a recent paper, Simpson and Dervin (2019a) offer a radical critique of the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC). However, Simpson and Dervin’s paper contains numerous factual errors, interpretative errors and category errors in its description of the RFCDC. We identify 12 such errors which invalidate the conclusions drawn by them. We correct all of these errors, and suggest that, rather than using Simpson and Dervin’s paper as a source of information about the RFCDC, readers should read the RFCDC itself, before drawing their own conclusions about the RFCDC and the adequacy of the arguments offered by Simpson and Dervin.