Nowhere ǁ Erewhon

Abstract

What is nowhere? Is it a non-place that has been created by the disappearance of distinct identities in the spread of standardised, global capitalism? Or has it come about as a result of colonialisation and the separation of indigenous cultures from their lands, and their replacement with vacuous, colonised, globalised non-places? This article suggests that ‘nowhere’, which was satirically entitled, ‘Erewhon’ by Samuel Butler due to the inverted action of machines, is still being created today, but by the combined forces of financial capitalism, digital colonialisation (e.g. Facebook or Twitter) and the present-day global curriculum, and its concomitant teaching and learning methods. Even though the present day curriculum refers to place, for example, in geographical studies, this referencing in no way establishes a connection with or to this place for the cohort. Rather, the present day curriculum precisely and systematically evacuates any possibility of connective-affective-synthesis (i.e. a curriculum that is enacted and felt), and at the same time provides false and illusionary utopias, such as an ideal global democracy based on international money flows. These actions in the establishment of ‘nowheres’ through learning shall be explored in this article by attention to tropes connected to contemporary educational practice and the philosophy of education.