Zelinka, J. (2022). Subjects and Subjectivities of the (New) Geopolitics of Knowledge. In: Parreira do Amaral, M., Thompson, C. (eds) Geopolitical Transformations in Higher Education. Educational Governance Research, vol 17. Springer, Cham.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-94415-5_15
Abstract
The educational processes worldwide are said to be shaped by neoliberal logic of knowledge-production. In a continuously globalised world, the competition over logics of knowledge-production is accompanied by epistemic and political changes as well as by power shifts. In context of the (new) Geopolitics of Knowledge and using the theoretical lenses of Michel Foucault, the chapter intends to provide a critical perspective on new and emerging forms of subjectivities that indicate the changes of power balance. To narrow down the scope of analysis, it particularly examines the so-called 21st century key skills and competencies discourse and unwraps discursive practices and technologies of subjectivation operating within. By compiling and critically assessing the worlds most popular frameworks of key skills and competencies it tries to address the production of subjectivities and understand their relation to the current geopolitical dynamic. The chapter starts with introducing the current state of research and theoretically embedding the forthcoming analysis. It then presents and analyses the 21st century skills and competencies discourse to carve out three central tension-pairs, within which subjectivities are produced. It ends with reflecting on the preliminary results in light of the (new) Geopolitics of Knowledge as a form of global governmentality. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Author Keywords
21st Century Skills; Geopolitics of knowledge; Governmentality; Higher education; Subjects and subjectivities
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