The making of entrepreneurial subjectivity in adult education

Abstract

This article focuses on the idea of entrepreneurial subjectivity and the ways in which it is shaped by the entrepreneurial discourse in adult education. As a result, we argue that educational practices related to adults form a particular kind of ideal subjectivity that we refer to as entrepreneurial. In order to understand how this entrepreneurial discourse in adult education works, we will analyse how the young adults we have interviewed engage in the discourse and what effects this has for the construction of their subjectivities. Our joint empirical analysis is based on discourse-analytic methodology and on our previous empirical studies. Our research results suggest that participants in adult education end up constructing their subjectivities within the limits and possibilities of the entrepreneurial discourse that are made available to them. Embracing the entrepreneurial discourse construed in terms of autonomy and freedom, young people are expected to make a project out of their own subjectivities. As an effect, education as well as young adults’ autonomy is limited to a question of speaking in accordance with what is expected.

Keywords:

• adult education
• entrepreneurial subjectivity
• discourse analysis
• power

Notes

1. The white cap is worn by students as a sign of graduation from upper secondary school and the passing of the matriculation exam.

2. The minimum number of courses in Finnish general upper secondary school is 75. The courses can be completed in 3–4 years (Finnish National Board of Education 2003).