The Learning Society from the Perspective of Governmentality

Ethnicizing Employability : Governing the Unemployed in Labour Market Projects in Sweden

“…Lifelong learning is also a topic that has been thoroughly analyzed using governmentality approaches (cf. Fejes and Nicoll 2008;Masschelein, Simons, Bröckling and Pongratz 2007).…”

Exploring misery discourses: problematized Roma in labour market projects

“…The will to educate the Roma participants is formulated in a condensed way in the project Pre-study on Roma education 14 , where they propose creating tailored educations for Roma and mixing formal and informal learning in different milieus, typical for the learning society (Masschelein et al, 2007). The project concludes that 'raising the educational level of the Roma is the method we believe is most successful to get the Roma into working life'.…”

“…Hence, power and knowledge are intertwined and closely related to problematizations. From a governmentality perspective, learning becomes a way of governing people through power and knowledge in attempts to conduct the conduct of the targeted learner (Masschelein et al, 2007). As governmentality has a discursive character, it is crucial to 'analyse the conceptualizations, explanations and calculations that inhabit the governmental field' (Miller & Rose 2008, p. 29f) one is analysing.…”

“…Once again, we see the problematizations in the 1950s is focused more on structural problems such as housing and changes in the labour market, in contrast to the more prominent individualized psychological reasoning in contemporary projects positioning the Roma as unemployable and excluded in discourses of medicalized, as well as embodied miseries. Learning about oneself and how to live one's life in a particular way becomes in this situation a learning activity where power and knowledge operate as a way of conducting the conduct of the targeted learner in a specific direction (Masschelein et al, 2007).…”

“…Once more the problematic situation of the Roma is portrayed in hereditary terms, as Roma parents pass on their lack of interest in education to their descendants. In the 'learning society' (Masschelein et al, 2007), a first step towards becoming educable is given as learning to recognize the value of education.…”