Planetary concerns as interruptions to aspiration-raising policy discourses: exploring potentialities for alternative modalities of aspiration

ABSTRACT

A rich literature has argued that so-called aspiration-raising policies tend to individualize structural conditions and thereby reproduce forms of inequality through young people’s aspirations. This paper explores how aspiration-raising policy discourses are lived in ways that both accentuate but that might also contest their terms. Drawing on Lauren Berlant, we theorize aspiration as ongoing performances that can be altered and remade in affective scenes of interruption. We put our theorization to work in a longitudinal study that followed a young woman, Marie, throughout her upper secondary education. Whilst Marie’s performances of aspiration predominantly chimed with such individualistic policy discourses, she would also describe moments where these performances were seemingly interrupted. These were moments where Marie vividly experienced concerns related to planetary crises. The analysis carefully unpacks these moments, and we argue that they bring Marie into contact with the political stakes in her life and lead her to search for alternative, more sustainable, and collective modalities of aspiration. Hence, supplementing previous studies that have shown how inequality is reproduced through aspirations, the paper contributes with new understandings of how alternative modalities of aspiration may emerge that potentially exceed structural limits.

KEYWORDS:

• Attachment
• aspiration
• education policy
• glitch
• interruptions
• planetary concerns

Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank the members of the Gendered Formations of Educational Interests and Aspirations research group, Jette Sandager, Mie Plotnikof, Anja Pors, Signe Ravn, and Dorthe Staunæs. We also wish to extend our profound gratitude to the editor and the anonymous reviewers for their brilliant, generous, and helpful comments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, SK. The data are not publicly available due to privacy restrictions.

Notes

1. Direct translation of the Danish ‘12-tals piger’, a well-known figure often invoked in public and political discussions around performance cultures and youth mental health.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Independent Research Fund Denmark under Grant 8091-00051B.

Notes on contributors

Sharon Kishik

Sharon Kishik is a Research Assistant at the Department of Business Humanities and Law, Copenhagen Business School. He is currently involved in the research project ‘Gendered formations of educational interests and aspirations in primary and secondary schooling’. He is interested in questions about subjectivity, time, and affect.

Justine Grønbæk Pors

Justine Grønbæk Pors is an Associate Professor at the Department of Business Humanities and Law at Copenhagen Business School. Her work concerns questions about time and temporality in education policy and educational institutions. She is interested in the contradictions inherent to contemporary policies and in subjectivity, affect and ghostly matters.