Education, neoliberalism and cultural citizenship: Living in ‘X Factor’ Britain

Abstract

This article seeks to investigate the idea of cultural citizenship in the context of current debates within neoliberalism. It argues that the notion of the knowledge economy displaces earlier critical debates in respect of how a cultural politics of education might develop within a democratic society. Further, it investigates the rise of entrepreneurial television programming and academy-style schools within the British context.These developments have explicit links to a wider culture of neoliberalism. However, the article is cautious about the extent to which we can simply assume that the cultural realm is being ‘made over’. Finally, the article argues that cultural studies scholars should re-read an earlier tradition of critical humanism to respond to these changes, while seeking to engage in wider democratic debates on the idea of the good society.