Conjuring optimism in dark times: Education, affect and human capital. Issue 6 (12th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sellar, Sam; Zipin, Lew
• Is Part Of: Educational philosophy and theory. Volume 51:Issue 6(2019)
• Page Start: 572
• Page End: 586
• Publication Date: 2019-05-12
• Subjects: Affect -- education policy -- human capital -- ideology critique -- Foucault -- optimism; Education -- Philosophy -- Periodicals; Teaching -- Periodicals; Éducation; Philosophie de l'éducation; Théorie de l'éducation; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 370.1
• DOI: 10.1080/00131857.2018.1485566
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-1857

Abstract

Abstract: This paper analyses how the discursive construction, valuation and subjective experience of human capital is evolving in parallel with crises of capital as a world-system. Ideology critique provides tools for analysing policy 'fictions' that aim to sustain investment in human capital through education. Foucauldian analytical tools enable analysis of how human capital has become a project of self-appreciation and cultivation of positive psychological traits. We argue that the work of Lauren Berlant provides an important complement to these approaches and enables us to analyse how crises of capital are being lived as the cruelling of optimism about social mobility through investment in oneself as human capital. The paper points to an educational politics and pedagogy for living through infrastructural breakdown in darkly uncertain historical times.