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ABSTRACT
What is being sustained in education for sustainable development (ESD)? Drawing on biopolitical theory, this article puts forth the hypothesis that it is in fact the very life-chance gulf that separates wealthy ‘sustainable’ mass consumers from poor ‘sustainable’ subsistence-level populations. Hence, in sharp contrast to the cosmopolitan buzz that characterizes the international policy discourse on ESD, it is argued that ESD feeds into the global life-chance divide as it prepares different populations for entirely different lives and lifestyles. In previous research that has dealt with global aspects of ESD, a dividing line can be drawn between scholars who emphasize tendencies towards neoliberal homogenization and those who highlight contingency, local re-articulations and spaces of contestation. This paper offers a third theoretical position that while sharing a deep unease with global neoliberal government is primarily concerned with its ‘will to divide’. As a corollary of this biopolitical perspective, the paper makes a case for critical empirical research that can lay bare the cracks and contradictions in the grand narrative of ESD as a cosmopolitan ethical enterprise.
Notes
1. As we want to protect the identity of the actors in these two examples, they are presented anonymously. The first example is derived from the empirical fieldwork that one of the authors conducted for his PhD thesis. The second example is derived from the annual report, and website, of a Rwandan NGO.
2. The students in the first example are of course being informed about the negative environmental effects of, and the unfair treatment of labourers in, the current international trade regime. This is certainly important. Yet, the only real alternative that is offered to them appears to be an ‘appropriate’ mass consumer lifestyle. They are not exposed to any discussions about the possibility of an entirely different political economy.
3. Our point here is not that populations in ‘developed states’ are homogenous. We acknowledge that vast inequalities exist within these societies. These differences are however not the main focus of this article.
4. As his conceptual distinction ‘insured’/‘non-insured’ life demonstrates Duffield certainly recognizes that ‘we are all of the community of the governed’ (Foucault quoted in Duffield, Citation2007, p. 232) albeit in different ways. Yet, in spite of this, Duffield exclusively focuses on ‘sustainable development’ as a tool for governing ‘non-insured’ surplus populations.
5 Reid and Evans are concerned with environmental aspects of government. However, their discussions are foremost theoretical and primarily revolve around how ecological reason has been appropriated by neoliberal economic rationality through the new doctrine of resilience (Evans & Reid, Citation2014; Reid, Citation2012, Citation2013).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sofie Hellberg
Sofie Hellberg is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg. Her areas of interest include the politics of water, environmental and resource governance, (green) governmentality, biopolitics, power and agency, as well as research methodology. She is published in Geoforum and she is co-editor and author, together with Stina Hansson and Maria Stern, of the Routledge volume Studying the Agency of Being Governed. She has extensive research experience from South Africa. She has also conducted research in Sweden.
Beniamin Knutsson
Beniamin Knutsson is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Pedagogical, Curricular and Professional Studies, University of Gothenburg. Most of his work is informed by Foucauldian and post-Marxist theory. His research interest includes education, globalisation, international development cooperation and so-called education for sustainable development. He has recently published in Third World Quarterly; Globalisation, Societies and Education; Globalizations; and Development and Change. He has extensive fieldwork experience from Rwanda and Sweden. He has also conducted research in Mozambique, South Africa and Tanzania.