Committee One (Ethnographic Approaches to Schools, Communities and Educational Systems)
Call for papers for the 2012 annual meeting:
CALL FOR PAPERS
For the 111th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association
(November 14-18, 2012, San Francisco, CA)
Meeting Theme: Borders and Crossings
Please consider submitting an abstract by February 15th to
amy.brown@utexas.edu
SESSION TITLE: Public Borders, Private Crossings: Ethnographic Approaches
to Mapping Neoliberalism, Globalization, and Corporatization in Schools
ORGANIZERS:
Amy Brown, Marguerite Wilson, Marta Baltodano
DESCRIPTION:
In his CAE presidential address at the 2011 annual meeting,
Bryan Brayboy challenged educational anthropologists to “engage the
neoliberal world with humility, grace and wisdom.” While the effects of
neoliberal globalization reach beyond education and schooling,
anthropologists of education can provide a unique perspective on what
happens when private, corporate interests and agendas engage or merge with
“public” educational spaces. Is it useful to conceptualize the tension
between public and private as a “border”? This panel will present the work
of ethnographers who engage with the privatization of education, both in
and outside of schools. Papers in this panel will engage questions such as:
1) How do neoliberalism and privatization affect schools and communities?
2) How do ethnographers integrate critique and analysis of neoliberal
globalization with intersectional matrices of privilege and oppression
(race, class, gender and sexuality, for example)? 3) How can
anthropological methods “talk back” to neoliberal trends? 4) How can the
tools of qualitative research aid in documenting the effects of
neoliberalism and privatization on people’s everyday lives and experiences?
5) What does “social justice” look like in the neoliberal world? 6) How do
models of “social entrepreneurship” articulate with contested definitions
of social justice?
Importantly, in addition to looking critically at the borders
and crossings of the public and private in education, we explore the limits
of neoliberalism as a conceptual tool for anthropologists. What,
specifically, do we mean by neoliberalism? How does it differ from the
tenets of classical liberalism? In what ways does the concept of
neoliberalism contribute to an individualistic self/other paradigm and
perhaps serve to create communication barriers between social scientists
and policymakers? Might there be multiple neoliberalisms, and if so, how do
anthropologists name and engage these in our research? This panel will
strive to construct an ethnographic map of neoliberalism, globalization and
corporatization. By naming, defining, and challenging the parameters of
neoliberalism in schools we hope to cultivate greater awareness, dialogue,
and action towards social change.
INTERESTED?
If you would like to participate in this session, please send your name,
contact information, paper title, and abstract to Amy at
amy.brown@utexas.edu by Friday, February 15th, 2012
