The Scholars as a Public: neoliberal education and governamentality

Abstract

This paper aims to present the ways in which the notion of public is productive to understand the technologies of power produced in the interfaces between education and communication in contemporary capitalism. This concept, created from the theories of Gabriel Tarde, enhances the understanding that the multi-media materials which have been used in our time produce a sophistication of technologies of power. We examine, therefore, the management of the minds of scholars as a technology of power typical of contemporary neoliberalism, such management not only forwards flexible ways ofrelating to knowledge, but also places the analyzed individuals in a dense network of permanent connections.