New philanthropy in education in Portugal: fabricating social inclusion as policy, knowledge and practice

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the ways through which new philanthropy in education is being enacted in Portugal, focusing on one of its significant imaginaries: social inclusion. We analyse EPIS (Entrepreneurs for Social Inclusion), a top association dedicated to corporate philanthropy with a growing presence in the education system. Drawing on Popkewitz’s concept of fabrication, it examines EPIS’ programmes and deliverables as technologies that constitute social inclusion as an object of policy, knowledge and practice, targeting students (transforming ‘at-risk’ students into entrepreneurs), teachers and schools (transforming their cultures to become performance-oriented), and the relationship between State and non-State actors (fostering the State’s adoption of a rule-following role, dependent on knowledge generated by non-State actors). This paper suggests that new philanthropies’ social inclusion imaginary enacts a system of reason that promulgates results-oriented and evidence-based approaches to educational policy and knowledge.

KEYWORDS:

• New philanthropy
• social inclusion
• educational knowledge
• education policy
• system of reason
• corporate philanthropy

Disclosure statement

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

Notes

1 In Portuguese, Empresários Pela Inclusão Social.

2 These ‘mediators’ are teachers assigned by the Ministry of Education or psychologists contracted by the municipalities.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FCT/ UIDEF – UIDB/04107/2020.