Neoliberalism, language, and governmentality

Rojo, Luisa Martín; Percio, Alfonso Del

doi:10.4324/9780429286711-1

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

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“…Alongside ‘standard’ questions from this area of scholarly research, for example, ‘what do slogans mean, how do they function, and what are their characteristics’ (Denton, 1980: 10), there is a need to address additional questions that would help to unfold the neoliberal ‘revolution’ in governmentality and its relationship with language (Martín Rojo and Del Percio, 2020). For example, when – and how – do particular concepts [or a combination of them] turn into slogans [and vice versa]?…”

Section: Slogans and Governmentality: Some Preliminary Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing by slogans

Sardoč

Prebilič

2022

Policy Futures in Education

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Throughout recorded history, slogans have been an important part of our public life. From political rhetoric and propaganda, to social movements and awareness-raising campaigns, their usage has overcome historical periods, cultural barriers, ethnic affiliation, political systems, party allegiance or personal taste. Arguably more than any other linguistic ‘device’, slogans deliver a clearly recognizable message with as little complexity as possible. Nevertheless, despite their rhetorical ‘economy’, the narratives provided by slogans have also been associated with a simplified or even reductionist portrayal of otherwise complex or controversial phenomena. This article aims to address a range of previously neglected aspects associated with slogans and governmentality. The introductory part provides a genealogy of discussions over slogans and the main shortcomings the use of slogans has been associated with. The central part takes a closer look at zero tolerance, a flagship policy associated with the neoliberal logic of governance. The concluding part of this article outlines the subversive character associated with the mechanism of sloganization.

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Section: Slogans and Governmentality: Some Preliminary Considerationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing by slogans

Sardoč

Prebilič

2022

Policy Futures in Education

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“…In the United States, I/NL discourse is so pervasive as to be almost invisible. Viewing competition, growth, and gain as the purposes of human existence—what Martín Rojo and Del Percio (2019, p. 2) called the “inescapable logic of neoliberalism”—has become the “common sense” way of understanding the world (Gramsci, 1971). Thus, unless principals or other policy makers develop an awareness of and draw on alternate discourses, I/NL will increasingly serve as the “natural” (i.e., default) framework for understanding DL.…”

Section: Principals’ Development Of Critical Consciousnessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equity/Social Justice, Instrumentalism/Neoliberalism: Dueling Discourses of Dual Language in Principals’ Talk About Their Programs

et al. 2020

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This study explores how principals of dual language (DL) programs draw on two dominant societal discourses around language education—linguistic instrumentalism/neoliberalism and equity/social justice—to make sense of their programs. Through in‐depth interviews with 19 principals of Spanish‐English elementary school DL programs in Arizona and California, the researchers examine (1) the ways in which the two discourses manifested in the principals’ talk, and 2) the consequences for English learners of each discursive framing. The researchers found that framing a program within each discourse led principals to different conclusions about the purpose of DL, its goals, and who should be included in it. Principals adopting a predominantly neoliberal frame understood DL as a way to gain a competitive edge, both for their schools (competing with other schools for students) and for their students (competing for future jobs at a global scale). Principals drawing primarily on social justice discourse instead understood DL as a historically contingent, collaborative movement for social transformation. The authors illustrate how the first framing can contribute to the exclusion of English learners from DL, while the latter presupposes their belonging. They also discuss future work exploring how principals come to develop their discursive framings.

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“…Studies have even noted how the neoliberalized language, mediated and strengthened by social categories (e.g., class, gender), exacerbates inequality (Price, 2014; Song, 2018). More recent studies taking the Foucauldian lens of neoliberalism as a mode of governmentality, i.e., “the conduct of conduct,” put subjects at the center of analysis (Foucault, 1988, p. 19; Martín Rojo & Del Percio, 2020; Urla, 2019). This emerging strand of research has explored how neoliberalized economic logic and power are inculcated into individuals’ minds and actions, and how certain subjectivities are produced and transformed as individuals act upon themselves through the “technology of self” (Foucault, 1988, p. 19).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This emerging strand of research has explored how neoliberalized economic logic and power are inculcated into individuals’ minds and actions, and how certain subjectivities are produced and transformed as individuals act upon themselves through the “technology of self” (Foucault, 1988, p. 19). Following Foucault (1988), subjectivity can be understood as particular ways subjects understand, perform and evaluate selves and the ways they in turn exercise control on their own conduct, affect, desires, hopes and monitor those of others (Martín Rojo & Del Percio, 2020; Rampton, 2016). Examining forms of subjectivities can be a strategy for revealing and problematizing the way neoliberal transformation extends to individual conduct and thus points to possible ways for resistance (Martín Rojo & Del Percio, 2020; Park, 2017; Urla, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following Foucault (1988), subjectivity can be understood as particular ways subjects understand, perform and evaluate selves and the ways they in turn exercise control on their own conduct, affect, desires, hopes and monitor those of others (Martín Rojo & Del Percio, 2020; Rampton, 2016). Examining forms of subjectivities can be a strategy for revealing and problematizing the way neoliberal transformation extends to individual conduct and thus points to possible ways for resistance (Martín Rojo & Del Percio, 2020; Park, 2017; Urla, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Whose English gets paid off?—Neoliberal discourses of English and ethnic minority students’ subjectivities in China

Guo,

2023

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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The study traces the trajectories of Uyghur college students’ subjectivity construction and transformation from Foucault's governmentality perspective. Drawing on ethnographic data of two telling cases, it explores how minoritized students’ subjectivities were linked to neoliberal discourses of English and constituted by power techniques, self‐technologies, and affective dispositions embedded in wider institutional transformations. Participants were found experiencing a shift to the individualistic subjectivity associated with academic achievement and performance in English away from the collective identity of “authentic Uyghur” symbolized by the Uyghur language. Two salient discourses of English, i.e., English as constraints, and English as academic excellence, emerging from the neoliberal‐oriented institutional English language education policies and practices, shaped the participants either as incompetent English learners or elite subjects. Participants learned to responsibilitize themselves through such self‐technologies as confession and preaching, and affective practices. Yet, technologies of hope and optimism became for a few the enjoyment of experiences and performance of elitism while projecting a majority disadvantaged as affectively problematic others. The self‐technologies and affective responses without recognition of larger structures of inequality could further reinforce the neoliberal logic. The affective labor of sense of solidarity, commitment to community, empathy for the deprived ones with critical reflection and collective action, nevertheless, may counter neoliberal logic and point to an alternative path to meaning‐making and social relations.

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Neoliberalism, language, and governmentality

Cited by 17 publications

References 1 publication

Governing by slogans

Governing by slogans

Equity/Social Justice, Instrumentalism/Neoliberalism: Dueling Discourses of Dual Language in Principals’ Talk About Their Programs

Whose English gets paid off?—Neoliberal discourses of English and ethnic minority students’ subjectivities in China

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