Affective Governmentality

This book investigates the subjectivities in education arising from the triumphant mobilisation of care as portrayed in educational advertisements, and provides a novel theory of affective governmentality based on empirical research on affect, neoliberalism, and governmentality. It also takes the bold step of encouraging the re-imagination of the central and pressing question of school marketisation in Singapore, and problematises the seemingly innocuous portrayals of care in light of neoliberal governmentality seeking to perform cultural work on preferred identities and subjectivities. Using a judicious selection of media artefacts, the book scrutinises the creation of emotional technologies through an ethic of caring, harnessing vulnerabilities and triumphalism. As such it not only equips readers to understand the role of emotional technologies but also offers a critical and alternative view of hope and aspirations for transforming society."Andrew Pereira’s outstanding scholarly contribution to the field of educational policy studies and governance is a crucial piece of the puzzle about what can be said and written about Singapore education" -- Allan Luke, Emeritus Professor, Queensland University of Technology, Australia
“There is now an enormous body of writing on neoliberalism and education much of it is repetitive and rhetorical.  Pereira’s book is a very novel and very significant contribution to scholarship that explores some specific forms and modalities of neoliberal education. It carefully examines a vast array of cultural and media artefacts that ‘advertise’ and represent education in Singapore and the affective government of teachers and students that results from this. The book develops an analytic framework for engagement with such artefacts that will be a great use to researchers in other settings – it thoroughly deserves widespread attention.” -- Stephen J Ball FBA, Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education, Institute of Education, University College London