Understanding the mechanisms of neoliberal control

Lifelong Learning, Flexibility and Knowledge Capitalism

Bibliographic Data

ID5821385
AuthorsMark Olssen (University of Surrey, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume25
Issue3
Pages213-230
Publication date2006-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Lifelong Education (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0260-1370 • E-ISSN: 1464-519X
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02601370600697045
OpenAlexW2091743761
LanguageEN
Citations received80
References cited18

This paper argues that Foucault's conception of governmentality provides a powerful tool for understanding learning and education and links the organisation of learning to both politics and economics in developed Western societies. What is offered by Foucault's conception, I will argue, is a new version of superstructural sociology, which provides a means of understanding how educational and economic practices mutually condition and adapt to each other while avoiding the excesses that plagued Marxist analyses in the later 20th century, which represented such processes as the outcome of a necessary determination. Lifelong learning will be identified as a specifically neoliberal form of state reason in terms of its conception, emergence and development. Although it has manifested a uniformly consistent - albeit not exclusive - concern of serving dominant economic interests, the prospects for moving beyond it depend, I argue, on whether the structures of learning created can be harnessed for other ends; that is, whether embryonic within the discursive programme of lifelong learning is the possibility of linking the discourse to a progressive emancipatory project based upon egalitarian politics and social justice. Notes 1. The English Translator states that 'Foucault is playing on the double meaning in French of the verb conduire - to lead or to drive, and se conduire - to behave or conduct oneself, whence la conduite, conduct or behaviour.' (See Foucault 1982a Foucault, M. 1982a. "The subject and power. Afterword". In Michel Foucault: Beyond structuralism and hermeneutics , (2nd edn), Edited by: Dreyfus, H. L. and Rabinow, P. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]: 221, note 2). 2. My analysis relies on Lemke (1997 Lemke, T. 1997. Eine Ktitik der politischen Vernunft. Foucault's Analyse der modernen Gouvernementalitat, Berlin/Hamburg: Argument. [Google Scholar], 2001 Lemke, T. 2001. 'The birth of bio-politics': Michel Foucault's lecture at the College de France on neo-liberal governmentality. Economy and Society, 30(2): 190-207. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science (R)] , [Google Scholar]) and on Foucault (1997b Foucault, M. 1997b. "The birth of bio-politics". In Michel Foucault: Ethics, subjectivity and truth, Edited by: Rabinow, P. 73-79. London: Allen Lane/The Penguin Press. [Google Scholar]). 3. Taylorism characterised wage/labour relations that slowly emerged in industry during the later years of the 19th century based on fragmentation and competition, while Fordism describes relations that became dominant since the 1950s, which prolonged the Taylorist mode through mechanisation and factory organisation (see Boyer 1988 Boyer, R. 1988. The Search for Labour Market Flexibility, Oxford: Clarendon Press. [Google Scholar]). Additional informationNotes on contributorsMark OlssenMark Olssen is Professor of Political Theory and Education Policy in the Department of Political, International and Policy Studies, University of Surrey, UK. He author of many books and articles in New Zealand. More recently he is author of Michel Foucault: Materialism and education (New York: Bergin and Garvey, 1999). He has published articles in the UK in the Journal of Education Policy, Policy Futures in Education, The British Journal of Educational Studies, Educational Psychology, The British Journal of the Sociology of Education and Educational Philosophy and Theory. Released in 2003 from Peter Lang, New York, he is a co-editor with Michael Peters and Colin Lankshear of Critical Theory and the Human Condition: Founders and praxis, and from Rowman and Littlefield, New York, Futures of Critical Theory: Dreams of difference, also with Michael Peters and Colin Lankshear. Released in 2004 is a major sole authored book (with John Codd and Anne-Marie O'Neill) from Sage, titled Education Policy: Globalisation, citizenship, democracy, and an edited volume titled Culture and Learning: Access and opportunity in the classroom

Governmentality · Neoliberalism (international relations · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics

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