![Sample our Education journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5932/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Education.jpg"})
Abstract
Reading neoliberalism in a Gramscian key, this article argues that neoliberalism is not merely an ideological agenda but a new civilization design, what Gramsci termed a new historical bloc. Using the concept of new common sense as an analytical framework, the article offers 16 theses exploring different areas of education and policy impacted by neoliberalism.
Acknowledgements
I am thankful to Robert Arnove, Pedro Noguera, Peter Mayo and Gabriel Jones for their comments on a previous version.
Notes
1. It will become evident in the analysis that the neoliberal common sense is not specifically oriented to education but emerges as part of a larger strategy, a global effort to dismantle the welfare state in the USA and elsewhere. Similar transformations are occurring in important human services such as healthcare and transportation.
2. In the United States the concept of common sense has an important political sentiment, which is intimately linked to the tradition of the American Revolution. Thomas Paine wrote a pamphlet entitled ‘Common Sense’ that was anonymously published on 10 January 1776 and is considered one of the most powerful arguments for the American Revolution. Paine argued against the legitimacy of the colonization. His pamphlet, with its incendiary tone and biblical connotations, unleashed a revolutionary fury against British domination in the American colonies. Trying to evoke the spirit of Thomas Paine, conservative pundit Glenn Beck, in his agenda intimately connected with the rise of neoliberalism and neoconservativism in the United States, in 2009 published a book entitled Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine. Leaving aside Thomas Paine’s pamphlet or the pathetic resemblance of Glenn Beck’s book of a similar title, it would be appropriate to say that generally speaking people invoke common sense in reference to sound practical judgment that is independent of specialised knowledge, training or the like.
3. Some scholars prefer the term ‘regimen of truth’, drawing from Foucault’s theoretical arsenal rather than ‘common sense’, which is more closely related to the Gramscian tradition. I have discussed the similarities and differences of both concepts in Torres, Citation2011.
4. Hegemony in Gramsci ‘refers to a process of intellectual and moral leadership established as a consensus that is shared on the basis of common sense. This common sense, however, is dynamic and not static. It invariably emerges from a struggle or confrontation among social forces, ideologies, philosophies, and general conceptions of life. Despite Gramsci’s antinomies, he understand hegemony as a process of social and political domination in which the ruling classes establish their control over the classes allied to them through moral and intellectual leadership. Hegemony acquires a pedagogical character, but Gramsci also refers to hegemony as the dual use of force and ideology to reproduce social relations between the ruling and the subordinate classes. (Torres, Citation1998, pp. 13–14).
5. I have developed a systematic analysis of neoliberal globalisation in several works, including: Van Heertum, Richard, Liliana Esther Olmos, and Carlos Alberto Torres eds. (2011) In the shadows of neoliberal globalisation: educational reform in the last 25 years in comparative perspective E-Book, Bentham Books; Torres, 200a9, 2009b.
6. The Enlightment, particularly in post-colonial traditions, has been the subject of strong critiques as Eurocentric, Logocentric, Malecentric, and racist.
7. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. OECD, Citation2011. Divided we stand: Why inequality keeps rising.http://www.oecd.org/els/socialpoliciesanddata/dividedwestandwhyinequalitykeepsrising.htm.
8. This quote is in http://www.memorable-quotes.com/dante+alighieri,a2027.html. At the entrance of the Hell, in the 3rd Canto, Dante and his guide Virgil pass by a group of souls who were outside the proper entrance of the inferno in the ‘Ignavi’ circle (ignavi = slothful or sluggish person). Virgil explained to Dante that those people, when they were alive, remained neutral at a time of great moral decision. In Dante’s words, they ‘lived without Disgrace and without praise’ colour/chevissersanza ‘nfamia e sanzalodo (III/36). So they cannot enter either the Hell or the Paradise, because during their life they did not decide where to stay. The lines are: canto 3/34–36: [Virgil speaking] Ed Elli a me: ‘Questomisero modo tegnonl’anime triste di coloro che vissersanza ‘nfamia e sanza lodo. The great Italian poet Dante portrays very intensively the character of those who do not have the strength and the courage to make any choice. So end neither in the hell nor in the Paradise. They are in the Vestibule, a sort of entrance to Hell), but they suffer forever. They must follow a sign eternally tormented by vasps and hornets. See the English translation (http://www.italianstudies.org/comedy/Inferno3.htm), particularly lines 31–69.
9. Testing has a long tradition in places like China, which for the past 1300 years has used examination procedures to select the most able public servants.
10. While I do not have the time to outline the scenario of crises in this article, I must point out that there are several interlocked crises affecting our own post-industrial civilisation. Just to summarise, there is an ethical (or moral) crisis. There is the crisis of deregulation. There is a crisis of human rights, immigration and multiculturalism as the bedrock of citizenship. There is a planetary crisis, and finally, and very close to our own state of affairs in the university, there is an epistemological crisis (for a discussion of the epistemological crises see de Sousa Santos, 2007).
11. International Conference on Adult Education.
12. The Lisbon Declaration resulted from the discussions that took place during the fourth EUA Convention of Higher Education Institutions hosted by the five Lisbon Universities and the Portuguese Rectors’ Conference from 29–31 March 2005. It was formally adopted by the Council of the EUA on 13 April 2007. The original theme, with the presence of more than 700 universities and partners, was ‘Europe’s Universities Beyond 2010: Diversity with a Common Purpose’.
13. ‘There was a rise in the share of top-income recipients in total gross income in the three decades from 1980 to 2010 in all countries, with considerable variation from country to country. It was most marked in the United States: prior to the onset of the financial and economic crisis in 2008, the share of the richest 1% in all income reached close to 20%’ (OECD, 2012).