Transforming Subjectivities:

Abstract

This volume examines the transformation of subjectivities following contemporary societal trends with regulatory and administrative authorities targeting human subjectivity with the aim to transform it. It addresses the malleability of human subjectivity through rich qualitative analyses of how different governing attempts are received by the subjects themselves. While the scholarship on governmentality has so far produced an enormously useful body of literature on the ' how' aspect of governing, this book suggests that it has been prone to overestimate the degree to which our subjectivities are open to change. Combining ethnographic sensitivity with more traditional governmentality perspectives allows us to explore how governing attempts ' land' in the terrain t argeted -h uman subjectivity-i n actual social contexts, under specific forms of governing and rationality. In doing so, the book makes a distinctive contribution to a second generation of governmentality studies. It will appeal to social scientists with interests in governance, governmentality, social policy and the sociology of work.

Walking with Youth in Los Platanitos: Learning Mobilities, Youth Inclusion, and Co-production in International Planning Studios

“…International studios have become important components of global planning education, offering students opportunities for practical field-based learning as they address real-world planning problems (ACSP Task Force on Global Planning Education 2019; Gunder 2004; Sletto 2013; Smith et al 2014). Beyond technical and thematic training for aspiring planning professionals, such studios also provide important opportunities for critical reflexivity and personal growth for students, as they are forced to grapple with socio-economic inequities that produce unequal, racialized, and gendered geographies (Elwood 2004; Harris and Irazábal 2012; Healey and Jenkins 2000). Service-learning and other alternative, practice-based pedagogical strategies provide “a shift in learning from knowing what to knowing how, improved collaboration, and improved ability to apply concepts” to “real-world projects through the production of practical outputs” (Brooks et al 2002, 188), which are particularly relevant skills for reflective practitioners (Schön 1987) working in complex, unequal, and politically fraught environments.…”

“…To promote critical reflexivity and co-productive learning in our studios, we draw inspiration from work in critical pedagogy that questions the primacy of the formal classroom and the hierarchical relationship between teacher and student, which has long characterized the “banking” concept of higher education (Freire 1970). Instead of viewing students as passive receivers of disciplinary metanarratives in fixed spaces, critical pedagogy emphasizes critical reflexivity and learning across “borders” (Giroux 1991; see also Asher 2005; Cook 2000; Harris and Irazábal 2012; Heyman 2001; hooks 1994; Howitt 2001; Maxey 1999). Critical pedagogy calls for fostering learning environments that challenge and cross disciplinary and geographic boundaries, thus creating “borderlands” for learning “in which the very production and acquisition of knowledge is being used by students to rewrite their own histories, identities and learning possibilities” (Giroux 1991, 512).…”