Governing Social Change in Amdo
Deficit Ideologies, Educational Desire, and the Depoliticization of Tibetan Education
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24224522 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stuart J Wright (University of Oxford) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-27 |
| Publication date | 2026-09-26 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0007-4810 • E-ISSN: 1472-6033 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14672715.2026.2713637 |
| OpenAlex | W7214486614 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 37 |
Tibetan education in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has received international attention and criticism in recent years as an issue of colonial boarding schools that aim to assimilate young Tibetans. The proliferation of state-run boarding schools was the outcome of a central government policy of school consolidation, presented as a new panacea for the problems of rural education, and which resulted in the closure of hundreds of thousands of schools across the PRC. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in 2012–2013 and 2024 in parts of the Amdo region of Tibet (now part of Qinghai and Gansu Provinces), this article examines how education policies and practices are mobilized discursively as technical, practical, and non-political, while simultaneously extending state power into the everyday lives of rural Tibetans with cross-generational disciplinary effects. Contestation has been mitigated by existing and new forms of educational desire, while education has been “depoliticized” by quality discourses and deficit ideologies – including by some Tibetan educators – in the context of rapid socio-economic change and precarity.
Amdo · boarding schools · colonial assimilation · deficit ideology · depoliticization · Education policy · Precarity · school consolidation · socio-economic change · state power · Tibetan education · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Migration, Education, Indigenous Social Dynamics
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| Highly cited | No |
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