Emotionalities of rule in pedagogical mindfulness literature

Abstract

Since the turn of the millennium, mindfulness discourses have penetrated various areas of governing health, well-being, and happiness. A recent sub-genre of popular mindfulness literature is teaching and parenting. This sub-genre includes technologies of the self that inculcate responsible, autonomous subjects who control their own emotions and are present, authentic, and available. The article uses the concept of the fold to analyze the way mindfulness discourses aid in constituting a notion of a private sphere of subjective autonomy in teaching and parenting while also demonstrating that subjectivity is an area of governmental intervention in neoliberal rule.

Keywords:

• Teaching
• mindfulness
• governmentality
• emotions