Giving space to the subject’s potential present: Zemelman’s contributions to Sociology of Education

Abstract

The subfield of Sociology of Education (SOE) concerned with the growth of neoliberalism through critically analysing its policies, discourses, and processes of subjectivation has made a significant contribution to education in the last 40 years. Whilst this scholarship has generated new knowledge about what happens to people, contexts and educational systems when they are regulated by neoliberal logics, it has also subsumed the sociological imagination under what this episteme considers valuable. The paper aims to challenge this excessive focus on the neoliberal episteme by broadening our research scope to recover the subjects’ magmatic expression in SOE research. To do this, we introduce Hugo Zemelman’s notion of subject to examine how SOE can overcome this neoliberal closure. The paper discusses three epistemic movements: focusing on the subject, researching the undetermined possibilities of the present in a given order, and, paying attention to the evocative and symbolic aspects of thinking and language.

ABSTRACT (Spanish)

El subcampo de la Sociología de la Educación (SOE), enfocado en el crecimiento del neoliberalismo a través del análisis crítico de sus políticas, discursos y procesos de subjetivación, ha realizado una contribución de gran relevancia al campo educativo en las últimas cuatro décadas. Si bien estos estudios han generado nuevo conocimiento sobre cómo afecta a las personas, sus contextos y los sistemas educativos cuando son regulados por lógicas neoliberales, también ha subsumido la imaginación sociológica bajo lo que esta episteme considera valioso. Este artículo tiene como objetivo desafiar el excesivo foco en la episteme neoliberal mediante una ampliación de enfoque en nuestra investigación que permita recuperar la expresión magmática del sujeto en la investigación de SOE. Para ello, presentamos la noción de sujeto propuesta por Hugo Zemelman, explorando cómo la SOE puede superar este cierre neoliberal. En concreto, el artículo discute tres movimientos epistémicos: centrarse en el sujeto, investigar las posibilidades no determinadas del presente en un orden dado y prestar atención a los aspectos evocativos y simbólicos del pensamiento y el lenguaje.

Keywords:

• Sociology of Education
• neoliberalism
• Hugo Zemelman
• subject
• subjectivity
• potential present

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Notes

1 Regarding the absence of translations of Zemelman’s work to English, it is important to say that his work is not well known in the Spanish-speaking context either. The reasons for this lack of interest in his work, we think, have different layers: political, for being an author who was always openly critical to neoliberal policies promoted from the left; colonial, in the sense that his ideas originated in the South; intellectual, in that his work is complex and dense to even read in Spanish, to name but a few. This last reason implied that translating was difficult because Zemelman’s writing involves an original line of thought, where he re-signifies concepts and creates neologisms. We hope that by expanding the reach of Zemelman’s work to an English-speaking readership, more people will develop an interest in translating his work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by ANID/PIA/Basal Funds for Centres of Excellence FB0003.