Problem-Solving as a Governing Knowledge: “Skills”-Testing in PISA and PIAAC

Abstract

This article scrutinizes critically a pervasive knowledge shaping contemporary sociopolitical relations and spaces—“problem-solving knowledge”. It develops the argument that, as a governing knowledge, “problem-solving” is increasing in intensity and scope, with a range of negative and potentially dangerous effects. As a case study, the article examines how problem-solving knowledge operates in the OECD “skills” assessment programs PISA and PIAAC, with a particularly worrying connection between so-called “cognitive abilities” and labour market performance. It considers how this “turn to cognition”, with its associated moralism, divides “citizens” into those who either can or who cannot solve “problems”, producing “more productive” and “less productive” categories of people. More broadly, these programs illustrate how treating “problems” as self-evident referents is deeply depoliticizing, highlighting the importance of examining how governing takes place through problematization. Through tracing the emergence and functioning of “problem-solving” as a knowledge practice, the article encourages reflection on how problem-solving knowledge has come to be taken-for-granted as “truth” and on how it operates to limit political debate and to regulate political subjects.