Becoming Schoolgirls: the ambivalent project of subjectification

Abstract

In this article, the authors examine the concept and practices of subjecti cation; that is, the processes through which we are subjected, and actively take up as our own the terms of our subjection. They use Judith Butler's theorising of subjection both as a starting point for working with their own memories of being subjected in school settings, and as the theoretical basis of their analysis of subjecti cation. Their method of working, which they refer to as collective biography, is derived from Haug et al.'s methods developed in Female Sexualization. Their memories focus on aspects of the achievement of the individual, appropriate(d) schoolgirl subject who simultaneously constitutes herself and is constituted through discourse. They analyse the illusion of autonomy through which modern subjects are made possible, and the inevitable ambivalence that is experienced as schoolgirls take themselves up appropriately within the possibilities made available to them. Through re-membering their own pasts, and the embodied and emotional detail through which we became (and go on becoming) subjects, they open up for inspection the contradictory ground of the humanist subject, and in particular the feminine humanist subject, as it is achieved in educational settings.[Y]oung girls of primary school age are presented with, and inserted into, ideological and discursive positions by practices which locate them in meaning and in regimes of truth. (Walkerdine, 1990, p. 87) This article is based on a collective biography undertaken as part of a postgraduate workshop on Magnetic Island, located in the dry tropics of Australia. For one week the seven authors gathered to talk about their research and to engage in producing the stories for this collective research project. Our agreed task was to examine more closely the processes of subjecti cation-and to do so through locating the meanings and the regimes of truth through which we became, and go on becoming, speaking subjects. What we have chosen to write about here is the ambivalence of the project of becoming

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The pleasures of learning at work: Foucault and phenomenology compared

“…The data that is presented here is drawn from those employees who, in parallel to Davies et al (2001), took pleasure in, and were successful at, getting the goodies of learning. This was in terms of the degree to which they took up the opportunities of employee development programmes, apprenticeships and other forms of training and development offered to them.…”

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