The implications of Autonomist Marxism for research and practice in education and technology

This article considers the relevance of Autonomist Marxism for both research and practice in education and technology. The article situates the Autonomist perspective against that of traditional Marxist thought – illustrating how certain core Autonomist concepts enable a critical reading of developments in information and communication technology. These include notions of the ‘social factory’, ‘immaterial labour’ and ‘cognitive capital’, the ‘general intellect’ and ‘mass intellectuality’, and the ‘cybernetic hypothesis’. It is argued that these perspectives are particularly useful in enabling a critique of the place of education and technology inside the circuits and cycles of globalised capitalism. The Autonomist approach can be criticised – not least for its apparent network-centrism and its disconnection from the hierarchical, globalised forces of production. Nevertheless, this position offers a powerful ‘way in’ to understanding education and technology as key sites of struggle. It lays bare the mechanisms through which technology-rich educational settings are co-opted for work, while also suggesting possibilities for pushing back against the subsumption of contemporary education for capitalist work.     

State school inspection policy in Norway and Sweden (2002–2012): a reconfiguration of governing modes?

There is growing research interest in school inspection throughout Europe; however, there have been few comparative studies between Swedish and Norwegian school inspectorates. Such a study is necessary since little is known about how inspection policies are shaped through ‘governing modes’ in the two Nordic countries. This paper explores the similarities and differences between state school inspection policies within the two countries from 2002 to 2012. Based on a rigorous, comparative document analysis of 23 policy documents, a particular focus is given to how school inspection adheres to professional-bureaucratic control as a mode of governing and/or details national expectations through performance audit, potentially intervening into school practices. We demonstrate that even if the cases of public administration seem to be somewhat homogenous from the outside, there is substantial evidence of major differences in the inspection policies of these two countries which can be explored by comparative analysis. Specifically, this paper contributes both conceptually and comparatively to understanding how a study of purposive and evaluative modes of governing can add to the field of school inspection studies.     

Embracing the Abject Other: The Carnival Imagery of Harry Potter

In Rabelais and His World Mikhail Bakhtin traces the history of laughter and the specific impact of Francois Rabelais upon that history, but more important it is the most definitive example of the carnivalesque available to Western scholars to date. By carnivalesque he refers to the traditional language and spectacle associated with folk culture within the carnival season, language and images that represent the universal truths of life, death, and renewal through the grotesque body. Bakhtin’s theories of the characteristics of unbridled freedom illustrate the universality and dissident effects of laughter. The revolutionary or subversive, carnival spirit displayed by the clash between official and unofficial culture bear particular significance upon the Harry Potter series. At the heart of carnival imagery is what Bakhtin defines as the three elements of laughter: “universalism, freedom, and… [their] relation to the people’s unofficial truth” (p. 90). These are the elements of laughter that most adequately characterize Harry Potter’s subjective view of what is good and right. He is at the most basic level an initiate of change who works within the realm of the carnivalesque to illustrate the subversive qualities of laughter in opposition to the official culture the muggle world represents with regards to race. The carnivalesque and grotesque in Harry Potter illustrates an appeal to social transformation through the power of laughter and the reversal of the dominant order of race and racial difference.     

Humanitarian engineering placements in our own communities

There is an increasing interest in the humanitarian engineering curriculum, and a service-learning placement could be an important component of such a curriculum. International placements offer some important pedagogical advantages, but also have some practical and ethical limitations. Local community-based placements have the potential to be transformative for both the student and the community, although this potential is not always seen. In order to investigate the role of local placements, qualitative research interviews were conducted. Thirty-two semi-structured research interviews were conducted and analysed, resulting in a distinct outcome space. It is concluded that local humanitarian engineering placements greatly complement international placements and are strongly recommended if international placements are conducted. More importantly it is seen that we are better suited to address the marginalised in our own community, although it is often easier to see the needs of an outside populace.     

高水平教练员获取科研成果的途径

为保持优秀运动员的运动优势,高水平教练员必须不断提高自身的知识水平和结构.但体育科研在运动成绩中所占的比重及科研成果向教练员传递的有效机制,我们还了解甚少.