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    Ökonomisierungstendenzen

    Economization tendencies

    The economization of the social, and particularly of education, is the focus of numerous contemporary diagnoses, including in the realm of education studies. If we are to follow the reasoning of Michel Foucault, we are living in an age of neoliberal “governmentality”, a form of government relying less on open coercion than indirect manipulation. An important role in this context is played by the “technologies of the self”. These technologies prompt individuals to adopt a form of relationship to the self that will increase the effectiveness of economic forms of government. As an “entrepreneur of oneself”, each individual must be concerned at all times to make optimum use of (his or her) human capital. The factor of education plays a critical role in these processes. In connection with a deregulation of markets and delegitimation of social/state welfare systems, the education system of west European provenance has been restructured in the past twenty years. Knowledge is now regarded as a valuable resource, requiring optimal utilization in order to keep national economies competitive and keep individuals employable. The key concept in this context has become lifelong learning, whereby individuals continuously adapt to rapidly changing technical and social requirements. “Arguments of the direct exploitability of learning content and ‘competencies’ that can be acquired in the pedagogical setting for constructing a successful employment history are increasingly displacing a conception of education that regards education in a democratic society as a fundamental right and a value in itself.” (1) In this setting, artists – initially perhaps to their surprise – again find themselves to be exemplars of the (by now already old) new economy, which is in a state of “creativity hype”. (Cf. the Plattform Transversal dossier on “Creativity Hype”).

    “Under the watchword of ‘the creative imperative’, the debate has focused particularly on the function of artists as ideal role models for the economy of a society of services in which individuals are called upon to continually reinvent themselves as a ‘Me, Inc.’ and adjust as seamlessly as possible, in a process of ‘lifelong learning’, to increasingly rapidly changing technical and social conditions. Another question being asked in this context is the following: to what extent is the ability to critique and engage in the self-empowered articulation of opinions on aesthetic matters, which was regarded as a paradigm in the 1970s and could possibly extend to project addressees through artistic activation, no longer to be seen as resistance attributes needed for democratic processes, but rather as a prerequisite for smooth operation in the new economy? It is precisely these critical perspectives that frequently appear to be lacking in the current updating of the notion of “education with art.” (2)
    1  C. Mörsch: Eine kurze Geschichte von KünstlerInnen in Schulen.
    2  Ibid
    Literature
    • Ulrich Bröckling, Susanne Krasmann Thomas (eds.): Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart. Studien zur Ökonomisierung des Sozialen, 2000, Frankfurt/M.
    • Justin Hofmann, Marion von Osten, Marion (eds.): Das Phantom sucht seinen Mörder. Ein Reader zur Kulturalisierung der Ökonomie, Berlin.
    • Isabell Lorey: Gouvernementalität und Selbst-Prekarisierung. Zur Normalisierung von KulturproduzentInnen, 2006, transversal 2007.
    • Angela Mcrobbie: "'Jeder ist kreativ'. Künstler als Pioniere der New Economy?" In: Jörg Huber (ed.): Singularitäten – Allianzen. Interventionen 11. 2002, Vienna/New York, pp. 37–60.
    • Maurizio Lazzarato: Immaterielle Arbeit. Gesellschaftliche Tätigkeit unter den Bedingungen des Postfordismus, in: Lazzarato, Maurizio / Negri, Antonio / Virno, Paolo (eds.): Umherschweifende Produzenten. Immaterielle Arbeit und Subversion. 1998, Berlin, pp. 39–52.
    • C. Mörsch: Eine kurze Geschichte von KünstlerInnen in Schulen, in: Nanna Lüth, Carmen Mörsch (eds.); Kinder machen Kunst mit Medien. 2005, Munich.
    • Katharina Pühl: Der Bericht der Hartz-Kommission und die‚ Unternehmerin ihrer selbst’: Geschlechterverhältnisse, Gouvernementalität und Neoliberalismus, in: Marianne Pieper; Encarnación Gutiérrez Rodríguez (eds.): Gouvernementalität. Ein sozialwissenschaftliches Konzept im Anschluss an Foucault, 2003, Frankfurt a. M./New York, pp 111–135.
    • Doris Rothauer: Kreativität und Kapital. Kunst und Wirtschaft im Umbruch, 2005, Vienna.
    • Peter Spillmann, Marion von Osten: Be Creative! – Der kreative Imperativ, 2002, Zurich: Museum für Gestaltung.
    • Gerald Raunig, Ulf Wuggenig (eds.): Kritik der Kreativität, 2007, Vienna. Cf. the dossier «Creativity Hype» on the Transversal platform.