Sustaining the life-chance divide? Education for sustainable development and the global biopolitical regime

Hellberg, Sofie; Knutsson, Beniamin

doi:10.1080/17508487.2016.1176064

Cited by 24 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 42 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Hopefully, future scholarly work will critically explore how ESD is implemented in different socio-economic contexts around the world, and enable us to understand more fully its potentially reproductive effects (cf. Hellberg and Knutsson 2018;Knutsson 2019). I believe that this is an urgent area of research as we enter the next global ESD programme.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the paper has brought attention to some rare disruptive moments, whose significance should not be entirely underestimated, the overall contention is that ESD unfolds through a regime of practice wherein inequality has become effectively normalized. The paper has further argued that the differentiation between rich and poor can be understood biopolitically and that it is illuminative of how populations and lifestyles are separated and governed in a liberal ESD regime (Hellberg and Knutsson 2018;Knutsson 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Hellberg's findings on how 'sustainable' water governance separates populations and lifestyles, prompted questions whether such biopolitical differentiation is also integral to ESD. Spurred by these concerns, Hellberg and I have recently elaborated on methodological aspects of exploring ESD biopolitically (Hellberg and Knutsson 2018) and I have also analyzed how biopolitical differentiation is instantiated in a global ESD initiative (Knutsson 2019). The present article adds to this scholarly project through an exploration of biopolitical differentiation in South African ESD.…”

Section: A Biopolitical Lensmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…It is only when we start comparing how ESD is unpacked in relation to different populations that a more problematic pattern is allowed to emerge in terms of how inequality, differentiation and ESD interrelate (cf. Hellberg and Knutsson 2018;Knutsson 2019). I would even go so far to argue that the eco-schools programme, at this specific event, temporarily ceases to be a biopolitical instrument for the production of self-managing 'sustainable' communities, but rather turns into a mechanism that exposes the very (bio)political nature of sustainable development.…”

Section: (Ab)normalized Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 98%

“…A biopolitical perspective places focus on the management of life at the level of populations and enables an analysis of how different lifestyles are governed and separated through ESD (cf. Hellberg and Knutsson 2018;Knutsson, 2019). The term lifestyles should be understood biopolitically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Managing the GAP between rich and poor? Biopolitics and (ab)normalized inequality in South African education for sustainable development

Knutsson

2020

Environmental Education Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The extreme inequality in South African education is well-documented by researchers. There is also a rich literature concerned with education for sustainable development (ESD) in the country. The relationship between these two phenomena has, however, been sparsely investigated. Drawing on biopolitical theory and fieldwork conducted in South Africa, this paper queries how ESD programmes handle the lifestyle gap that separates rich and poor populations. The article demonstrates how ESD, through ostensible sensitivity to local 'realities', is adjusted to comply with different socio-economic living conditions, and how different roles are assigned to rich and poor in the quest for sustainable development. This differentiation, it is argued, can be understood biopolitically. The paper further argues that the differentiation between populations in rich and poor settings implies a depoliticized notion of local 'realities' as something isolated and given, rather than relational and produced. While the overall findings suggest that ESD unfolds through a regime of practice wherein inequality has become effectively normalized, the paper also points to rare disruptive moments where the normal is rendered abnormal. Ultimately it is argued that the South African case is a useful entry-point for discussing generic problems of globally implementing ESD in an enormously unequal world. ARTICLE HISTORY

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Biopolitical Lensmentioning

confidence: 97%

Section: (Ab)normalized Inequalitymentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Managing the GAP between rich and poor? Biopolitics and (ab)normalized inequality in South African education for sustainable development

Knutsson

2020

Environmental Education Research

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Highlighting Ethics, Subjectivity and Democratic Participation in Sustainability Education: Challenges and Contributions

Franck

2017

Ethical Literacies and Education for Sustainable Development

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strange loops, oedipal logic, and an apophatic ecology: Reimagining critique in environmental education

Saari

Mullen

2020

Educational Philosophy and Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

There are currently two broad forms of critique undergirding environmental education theories: the first is one of subtraction from perceived reality as it seeks to reveal and remove illusions and ideologies, while the other takes the inverse form of adding to reality in the form of investigating how matter comes to matter. We suggest a third form that explores the paradoxical and uncanny aspects of ecological awareness and assumes an apophatic, self-negating form, which short-circuits and relinquishes all attempts at epistemological closure. In this third form, we are drawing on themes from dark ecology, which maintains that ecological awareness is decidedly 'weird' as it assumes the guise of an 'Oedipal' logic, a narrative trope in which the protagonist seeking to avoid a tragic fate finds out that avoidance itself is the realization of the tragedy. Using Timothy Morton's work as a springboard, we unpack the import of such looping temporality onto the onto-epistemological frameworks of environmental education.

show abstract

Sustaining the life-chance divide? Education for sustainable development and the global biopolitical regime

Cited by 24 publications

References 42 publications

Managing the GAP between rich and poor? Biopolitics and (ab)normalized inequality in South African education for sustainable development

Managing the GAP between rich and poor? Biopolitics and (ab)normalized inequality in South African education for sustainable development

Highlighting Ethics, Subjectivity and Democratic Participation in Sustainability Education: Challenges and Contributions

Strange loops, oedipal logic, and an apophatic ecology: Reimagining critique in environmental education

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About