Form Of Neoliberal Governmentality Research Articles

From sustainable development to resilience? (Dis)continuities in climate and development policy governance discourse

Abstract‘Resilience’ has become a central, albeit ambiguous, concept in environmental and development governance discourse since the mid‐2000s. However, whether this constitutes merely the updating of the language of sustainable development or a new discourse of environmental and development governance is unclear. Resilience is often characterised as a form of neoliberal governmentality that seeks to individualise the mitigation of ecological risks, implying that it is simply an extension of neoliberal sustainable development. However, this elides other possible articulations of resilience within environmental and development governance discourse more broadly. By developing and applying an innovative discourse analysis method, this article clarifies the relationship between sustainable development and resilience across these wider fields. We find that resilience is also articulated as a response to the failure of neoliberal sustainable development; as an integrating discourse of climate security and sustainable development; as a prerequisite for sustainable development; and as qualitatively different to sustainable development.

Queering Iranian Diasporic Cyberspace, Critiquing the Conditions of Belonging

Queering Iranian Diasporic Cyberspace, Critiquing the Conditions of Belonging

Youth resilience and training programmes in Australia and the US: Beyond neoliberal social therapeutics

ABSTRACT In a world where opportunities are increasingly limited, young people are encouraged to become resilient and entrepreneurial in their pursuit of the traditional markers of adulthood. Social enterprise and community organisations dedicated to supporting young people seek to recast these expectations by providing supportive work and training environments and cultures and encouraging young people to find passion and hope in economic conditions that have failed to deliver the security and wellbeing that was promised. These organisations identify and respond to complex issues like unemployment and disengagement, homelessness and housing precarity, and provide personal development, support, education, training and employment options. In this paper, we explore how youth-focused social enterprise and community organisation programmes shape dispositions of resilience and entrepreneurialism. Drawing on the work of Butler and Anthanasiou and Dey and Mason, we argue that social organisations re-imagine the ‘social therapeutics’ that young people may require in relation to their participation in neoliberal forms of governmentality. We hope to challenge conceptualisations of such interventions as purely bounded by neoliberal and pro-capitalist therapeutic logics, by identifying the complex and sometimes contradictory goals that community organisations and social enterprises work towards in supporting young people to navigate a precarious economic landscape.

Intangible heritage and the indigenization of politics in the Peruvian Andes: the dispute over the political party appropriation of the pablito/ukuku dancer

ABSTRACT This article analyses the opposition of the Council of Pilgrim Nations of Lord Quyllurit’i to the appropriation of the pablito/ukuku dancer by the Kausachun Cusco Political Movement during the 2014 Cusco municipal elections as part of a process of indigenization of politics in the Peruvian Andes. Quyllurit’i is the largest pilgrimage in the Peruvian Andes, recently included in the List of Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The pablito/ukuku dancers are crucial mediators between Lord Quyllurit’i – a Christ painted over a rock – and Apu Qulqipunku, a glacier closely related to the shrine. The opposition of the Council of Nations to Kausachun appropriation of the pablito/ukuku as well as the increasing electoral appeal of indigenous symbols are shaped by the confluence of two concurring processes: first, the democratization of the regional society partly due to the rural-urban migration and the 1979 instauration of universal suffrage; second, the global emergence of indigeneity and its instruments and the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. While intangible heritage is closely related to neoliberal forms of governmentality, it has strengthened the Council of Nations in its organic and implicit indigeneity, and has even pushed it to an instance of explicit indigenous identification.

Protracted crisis, food security and the fantasy of resilience in Sudan

In the past decade, food security and nutrition practices have become central in the promotion of resilience in protracted crises. Such approaches have been welcomed by the aid community because of their potential for linking relief and development. Social and political analysts, however, have criticized resilience approaches for failing to consider power relations and because they entail an acceptance of crisis or repeated risk. In this context, regimes of food security and nutrition practices have become increasingly targeted, privatized and medicalized, focussing on individual behaviour and responsibility rather than responsibility of the state or international actors. This article uses examples from Sudan to examine how and why the resilience ‘regime of practices’ has functioned as a form of neoliberal governmentality, and argues that it has created a fantasy in which conflict in Darfur is invisible. This allowed food aid to be withdrawn and removed the need for protection despite ongoing conflict and threats to livelihoods; thus crisis-affected populations have been abandoned.

Europe in crisis, the left, and the challenge of migration

ABSTRACT Taking as a point of departure recent writing by theorists such as Seyla Benhabib, Michel Feher, and Slavoj Žižek, who have argued that the ongoing refugee crisis presents a unique opportunity for Europe to redefine itself, the essay traces the ways in which the crisis and related issues are represented in Elfriede Jelinek’s play Charges (The Supplicants, 2015) and Yael Ronen and the Exile Ensemble’s performance Winterreise (2018). The racialized, unsovereign bodies of migrants are always in the ‘wrong’ places, these works suggest, defined by transgression. Situating this analysis in relation to current debates about states of exceptionalism and new forms of neo-liberal governmentality under the conditions of globalisation, I ask about the intervention of such performances in the increasingly repressive European migration regimes? What is the role of the Left in reclaiming the material, social, and legal conditions for the acceptance of refugees in Europe? Moreover, what can be done to redress this humanitarian crisis and establish unity, solidarity, and hospitality in Europe against a transnational front of the forces rejecting refugees?

‘You can change the world. We’re just here to help’: activist consultancy firms as forms of neoliberal governmentality

ABSTRACTUsing Foucault’s theory of governmentality, we trace the development of activist consultancy firms (ACFs), providing an in-depth description of two ACFs: Boutique Activist Consultancy and the Solutions Institute. We explore how these ACFs enact neoliberal governmentality. The ACFs’ ambivalent engagement with professionalization is the most notable finding of our research.

‘Being in Being’: Contesting the Ontopolitics of Indigeneity

This article critiques the shift towards valorizing indigeneity in western thought and contemporary practice. This shift in approach to indigenous ways of knowing and being, historically derided under conditions of colonialism, is a reflection of the “ontological turn” in anthropology. Rather than seeing indigenous peoples as having an inferior or different understanding of the world to a modernist one, the ontological turn suggests that their importance lies in the fact that they constitute different worlds and “world” in a performatively different way. The radical promise this view holds is that a different world already exists in potentia, the access to which is a question of ontology—of being differently: ‘being in being’ rather than thinking, acting and world-making as if we were transcendent or “possessive” modern subjects. We argue that the ontopolitical arguments for the superiority of indigenous ways of being should not be seen as radical or emancipatory resistances to modernist or colonial epistemological and ontological legacies but rather as a new form of neoliberal governmentality, cynically manipulating critical, postcolonial and ecological sensibilities for its own ends. Thus, rather than “provincializing” dominant western hegemonic practices, such discourses of indigeneity extend them, instituting new forms of governing through calls for adaptation and resilience.

Las nuevas categorías sexuales y la psicología del sujeto como ‘empresario de sí’: un análisis sobre los dilemas de la disidencia sexogenérica en el contexto neoliberal

El presente artículo indaga por las formas en que distintas identidades sexogenéricas no normativas —especialmente en el contexto mediático— entran en relación con una racionalidad neoliberal de gobierno de la subjetividad y la conducta. De manera particular, propone mostrar la consonancia entre determinadas formas de construcción mediática de estas identidades y la noción del sujeto como ‘empresario de sí’, presente en los discursos psicológicos contemporáneos. Para mostrar esta relación, se analiza el caso de un reportaje de prensa titulado “Las nuevas categorías sexuales”, utilizando herramientas del análisis del discurso desde una perspectiva pragmática y foucaultiana. Finalmente, se advierten algunas tensiones y dilemas que existen en los proyectos políticos de resistencia y disidencia sexogenérica en el contexto neoliberal contemporáneo.

The qualitative imagination: neoliberalism, ‘blind drift’ and alternative pathways

ABSTRACTIn this paper, we argue that the non-positivist origins that provided the impetus for the qualitative imagination over the past half century in educational research has undergone subtle, but nevertheless profound change and transformation as neoliberal forms of governmentality have increasingly colonised social and educational research. We examine contemporary responses and challenges to this process from within and outside the academy. It is our contention that unless educational researchers critically engage with these new methodologies, particularly as they are generated by and through social movements, qualitative research is likely to become subject to what CW Mills (Mills) referred to as ‘blind drift'.

Rolling back to roll forward: depoliticisation and the extension of government

Premised on the assumption that depoliticisation is a crucial aspect of neo-liberal governmentality, this paper attempts to synergise these two, previously disparate, concepts. Borrowing from Foucault’s theorisation of governmentality and drawing from inclusive definitions of politics/ the political, this paper argues for a reformulation of our understanding of depoliticisation and politicisation. The paper contends that depoliticisation is best understood as a technique of governing which works to legitimise neo-liberalism as the dominant political rationality. As such, we argue that depoliticisation acts as a tool for masking the ‘rolling forward’ of the state and the proliferation of new forms of neo-liberal governmentality.

Socio-Economic Mobility and Neo-Liberal Governmentality in Post-Socialist Europe: Activation and the Dehumanisation of the Roma

This paper discusses recent profound transformations in the post-socialist governance of welfare states and their impact on the Roma, Europe's most marginalised and vulnerable minority. Discussing the consequences of the recent transition of social policy in East Central Europe from the angle of a shift from Communist welfare societies to post-1989 active societies shows how these changes have simultaneously inaugurated new approaches to the region's Romani minorities. Through an analysis of how neo-liberal forms of governmentality have ambiguously been cross-fertilised with new and renewed patterns and techniques of welfare governance in Slovakia, this paper calls into question the current emphasis on activating supposedly ‘inactive’ Roma. This examination reveals that the introduction of allegedly politically neutral technologies and forms of expertise to improve the Roma's socio-economic mobility has actually resulted in disputable forms of Romani minority governance, including the dehumanisation of some of the most marginalised members of this minority. To challenge these practices, this paper advocates a break with the persistent policy-centric trend in Roma-related research. Redirecting research beyond the dominant focus on discrepancies between policies and their implementation, it is argued, potentially offers valuable insights into our understanding of the complex relationship between policy failures and the revitalisation of marginalising practices.

The Master’s in Teaching and Learning: expanding utilitarianism in the continuing professional development of teachers in England

The article focuses on the policy rhetoric of the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). This is a new degree being launched in the summer of 2010 aimed, initially, at teachers who have just joined the profession. The degree presages the aspiration for a Master’s level teaching profession in England. Professional development as conceived in the MTL is continuous rather than continuing and permeating the vision is the language of ‘personalisation’. Teachers will be accompanied on the journey by an ‘in-school coach’. These notions suggest a highly tailored approach to continuing professional development (CPD), with careful attention to the identification of teachers’ needs and close support from a colleague. The article argues that, contrary to this impression, the MTL marks a new and significant step in expanding the utilitarianism of the English education system. The MTL represents a deepening hold on education by the state and a growing scepticism about the value of higher education in the CPD of teachers. It also aspires to a changing culture in schools as the workplace becomes the locus for the CPD of teachers. As other authors have described, the national character of education systems in Europe and in the Americas, Australia, New Zealand and Asia reflect an increasing instrumentality. The MTL, then, can be seen as part of a global phenomenon; in this case the policy lever of CPD is employed to support performative and audit policy agendas via a rigid accountability system. The MTL also represents a particular form of neo-liberal governmentality where increasing centralisation is ‘masked’ by a ‘simulacra of care’.

The Rationalization of Educational Development: Scientific Activity among International Nongovernmental Organizations

Educational development organizations and related global movements emerged and expanded during the twentieth century. Today, most activities in the educational development field are characterized by a scientific outlook that schooling can be transformed using measurable and generalizable knowledge, and most of its leaders believe that experts can transport this knowledge internationally across diverse contexts. University-level certificates are now available for individuals who wish to become credentialed international development experts, and a cadre of professionals has been trained to apply the procedures of academic research to educational development. Scientific approaches to educational development have thus acquired great legitimacy in the modern world. The organizations and professionals pursuing scientific, expert, and knowledge-based activities have become a powerful international force and are increasingly the key players shaping global policies and practices in educational development, as evident from the global benchmarks laid out in the Education for All movement, as well as in international testing programs. In this article, I analyze the characteristics of international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) that pursue scientific, expert, and knowledgebased activities. Although scientific activities are immensely influential in the contemporary world, we have a poor understanding of which organizations engage in scientific activities and what types of organizations avoid or even reject them. Are such INGOs usually based in Western countries or headquartered worldwide? Are scientific activities compatible with alternative charitable and service provision approaches to educational development? Little is known about the types of organizations that are shaping educational development worldwide through their engagement in scientific, rationalized activities. Educational development INGOs can be defined as those seeking to improve education in developing countries. They are neither government nor for-profit agencies, and they have ties to more than one country. One prominent example, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), operates primarily in Bangladesh and secondarily in Afghanistan, both coun

Too distant shores: the Strait of Gibraltar and the space of exception

Focusing on The Sheep and the Whale (Le mouton et la baleine, 2001) by Moroccan-Canadian playwright Ahmed Ghazali, this essay examines political and ethical issues concerning human migration from Africa to Europe. The play's representation of human rights abuses in the Strait of Gibraltar and the dilemmas facing illegal migrants, refugees and asylum seekers will be situated in relation to current debates about the state of exception and the new forms of neo-liberal governmentality employed under the conditions of globalisation. In one way, Ghazali's drama pays homage to those trying to enter Fortress Europe – and specifically to the nameless young African bodies washed up on the shores of southern Spain. It attempts, in part, to exorcise the unspoken violence of these people's deaths in what has become a vast African cemetery, while prompting us to ask what can be done in order to reduce the death toll in the Gibraltar Strait.

Makeover Or Takeover? The strange death of educational autonomy in neo-liberal England

This paper is concerned with the erosion of educational autonomy in Britain in recent years. Employing an analytical framework derived mainly from the recent work of Basil Bernstein, it examines ways in which weakened boundaries between the educational and the economic/political spheres may be linked to attempts by government in Britain to take over, to an unprecedented degree, domains where educators and producers of knowledge have in the past enjoyed significant, although by no means unqualified, autonomy. Implications for changing educational identities are highlighted, as is Bernstein's central contention that we may be witnessing not merely presentational changes, but rather a fundamental redefinition of the relationship between knowledge and the knower. Certain aspects of the political and educational agenda of the present New Labour government are seen as continuing many of the directions of policy set by previous New Right administrations. It is suggested that such continuities at the level of politics and policy indicate the potency of neo-liberal forms of governmentality and the extent to which they have become entrenched. Postmodernist and modernist interpretations of these developments are briefly considered. Obstacles to effective contestation of the new modalities of control are discussed.