Enclosure and undifferentiation

On re-reading Girard during the Covid-19 pandemic

Bibliographic Data

ID2924867
AuthorsDavid Lundie (0000-0003-2913-8962, University of Glasgow, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume44
Issue4
Pages624-634
Publication date2023-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueDiscourse Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0159-6306 • E-ISSN: 1469-3739
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/01596306.2022.2070726
OpenAlexW4229074661
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited23

This essay reflects on the longer-term challenges posed to societal, political and educational sectors following the imposition of a shutdown of schools and universities by many governments around the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Using Rene Girard’s analysis of festivals as concealing originary violence, it reflects on the exposure to critique of practices of enclosure, including traditional brick-and-mortar schooling. Drawing on Girard’s treatment of undifferentiation and false differentiation, it poses the question of what role remains for education under undifferentiated conditions, without the logic of enclosure. The author suggests a Girardian episteme offers a more insightful theoretical contribution under these conditions, compared to an episteme drawn from one of the sectors which is in flux in this time of crisis. Behind the familiar critique that the practices of schooling serve only the purposes of capitalism, a more devastating and more liberating conclusion is offered; that the practices of enclosure (encompassing both the school and the workplace) serve only the purposes of enclosure

Capitalism · Enclosure · Episteme · Governmentality · Pandemic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Engineering · Law · Medicine · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Violence, Religion, and Philosophy

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