Abstract
This article gives an account of the use of knowledges from emerging scientific fields in education and youth policy making under the Coalition government (2010-15) in the UK. We identify a common process of ‘translation’ and offer three illustrations of policy-making in the UK that utilise diverse knowledges produced in academic fields (neuroscience, network theory and well-being). This production of ‘new knowledges’ in policy contexts allows for the identification of sites of policy intervention. This process of translation underlies a series of diverse revisions of the rational subject of policy. Collectively, these revisions amount to a change in policy-making and the emergence of a different subject of neoliberal policy. This subject is not an excluded alterity to an included rational subject of neoliberalism, but a ‘plastic subject’ characterised by its multiplicity. The plastic subject does not contradict the rational subject as central to neoliberal policy-making, but diversifies it.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 908-925 |
Number of pages | 18 |
Journal | British Journal of Sociology of Education |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 4 Jul 2016 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 4 Jul 2016 |
Keywords
- Rationality
- Networks
- Neuroscience
- Well-Being
- neoliberalism