Towards a Governmentality Analysis of Education Policy

Doherty, Robert

doi:10.1007/978-3-531-90194-7_3

“…This has coincided with a number of important critiques of contemporary university life that have variously shown how neoliberal policies have become increasingly routed and enacted at national and institutional levels in a hegemonic manner (Peters, 2001(Peters, , 2003Doherty, 2006;Simons, 2006Simons, , 2007Weber & Maurer, 2006;Peters & Besley, 2007;Peters et al, 2009 for instance, the impact of neoliberal registers in higher education policy at the European scale, underlining the dominant 'learning as investment' economic ideology (Simons, 2006).…”

Section: Envisioning the Performing Subject At Nui Galwaymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Many authors have pointed out how it is globally competitive university rankings that are driving much of the emergent performance evaluation culture in universities today (Peters, 2001;Doherty, 2006;Simons, 2006;Peters et al, 2009). 5 How they are viewed at NUI Galway is perhaps typical.…”

Section: Envisioning the Performing Subject At Nui Galwaymentioning

confidence: 99%

Governing the academic subject: Foucault, governmentality and the performing university

Morrissey

¹

2013

Oxford Review of Education

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, this paper explores how senior managers at an Irish university are seeking to measure and facilitate academic performance in the context of national and global competitiveness and a higher education landscape that appears firmly inflected by neoliberal ideas of rankings, benchmarking and productivity. I draw upon Michel Foucault's writings on governmentality and biopower, in particular, and I utilise findings from a range of in-depth interviews with central university managers, with a view to critically interrogating the envisioning of what is undoubtedly a new academic subjectivity in the Irish higher education sector -a subjectivity that is being progressively planned for and regulated.

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“…The neoliberal colonisation of higher education has been specifically critiqued by a range of authors who have variously drawn on Michel Foucault's writings on liberalism, security and governmentality (Marshall, 1990;Ball, 1994;Trowler, 1998;Peters, 2001;Doherty, 2006;Simons, 2006;Weber and Maurer, 2006;Peters and Besley, 2007;Peters et al, 2009). 3 Situating her critique in the context of neoliberal education reforms in New Zealand during the 1980s and 1990s, Tina Besley (2006) has used the concept of governmentality and its integral forms of self-regulation to critique the professionalisation of one particular discipline, counselling.…”

Section: Neoliberal Inflections In the Academymentioning

confidence: 99%

Regimes of performance: practices of the normalised self in the neoliberal university

Morrissey¹

2019

Foucault and Education

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Universities today inescapably find themselves part of nationally and globally competitive networks that appear firmly inflected by neoliberal concerns of rankings, benchmarking and productivity. This, of course, has in turn led to progressively anticipated and regulated forms of academic subjectivity that many fear are overly econo-centric in design. What I wish to explore in this paper is how emanating from prevailing neoliberal concepts of individuality and competitiveness, the agency of the contemporary academic is increasingly conditioned via 'regimes of performance', replete with prioritised claims of truth and practices of the normalised self. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's writings on governmentality, and Judith Butler's subsequent work on subjection, I use findings from a series of in-depth interviews with senior university managers at National University of Ireland, Galway to reflect upon the ways in which academics can respond effectively to the ascendant forms of neoliberal governmentality characterising the academy today. I contemplate the key task of articulating broader educational values, and conclude by considering the challenge of enacting alternative academic subjectivities and practices.

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“…The neoliberal colonisation of higher education has been specifically critiqued by a range of authors who have variously drawn on Michel Foucault's writings on liberalism, security and governmentality (Marshall, 1990;Ball, 1994;Trowler, 1998;Peters, 2001;Doherty, 2006;Simons, 2006;Weber and Maurer, 2006;Peters and Besley, 2007;Peters et al, 2009). …”

Section: Neoliberal Inflections In the Academymentioning

confidence: 99%

Regimes of performance: practices of the normalised self in the neoliberal university

Morrissey

¹

2013

British Journal of Sociology of Education

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Universities today inescapably find themselves part of nationally and globally competitive networks that appear firmly inflected by neoliberal concerns of rankings, benchmarking and productivity. This, of course, has in turn led to progressively anticipated and regulated forms of academic subjectivity that many fear are overly econo-centric in design. What I wish to explore in this paper is how emanating from prevailing neoliberal concepts of individuality and competitiveness, the agency of the contemporary academic is increasingly conditioned via 'regimes of performance', replete with prioritised claims of truth and practices of the normalised self. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's writings on governmentality, and Judith Butler's subsequent work on subjection, I use findings from a series of in-depth interviews with senior university managers at National University of Ireland, Galway to reflect upon the ways in which academics can respond effectively to the ascendant forms of neoliberal governmentality characterising the academy today. I contemplate the key task of articulating broader educational values, and conclude by considering the challenge of enacting alternative academic subjectivities and practices.

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Towards a Governmentality Analysis of Education Policy

Cited by 10 publications

References 3 publications

Governing the academic subject: Foucault, governmentality and the performing university

Governing the academic subject: Foucault, governmentality and the performing university

Regimes of performance: practices of the normalised self in the neoliberal university

Regimes of performance: practices of the normalised self in the neoliberal university

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