Perspectives of biopolitical analysis on university

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v36i1.904
Keywords: Biopolitics, University, Government

Abstract

An analysis of university governance and management is presented from a biopolitical perspective, aiming to comprehend the current transformations and challenges that universities face as social institutions. The biopolitical approach allows for distinguishing the university from other institutions of higher education, endowing it with particular characteristics and functions. Analyzing university governance from this standpoint enables conceiving the university as part of a network of higher education institutions, but also as a unique and autonomous educational entity. The concept of biopolitics, developed by Michel Foucault, is revisited, wherein it is utilized to scrutinize the relationship between the State and the biological life of the population. It is posited that universities, akin to other institutional systems, are subject to power dynamics and control mechanisms that influence their organization and operation. The problem focuses on analyzing the implications of applying biopolitical analysis to university governance, in order to understand the forms of power that operate within it and that sustain it as a particular and universal institution at the simultaneously. A genealogical methodology is employed to analyze the historical development of the university and its management in the contemporary era. One of the findings is that biopolitics demonstrates how institutional decisions impact social and biological life, influencing the population through values and practices based on the idea of the human, thereby inviting a reevaluation of university resistances and decisions in education and society.

Author Biographies

María Fernanda Varela Valdés, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico.

She has a degree in sociology and a master's and doctorate in pedagogy, both from UNAM. She has published several texts such as “Perception and Experience through the screen, published by UPN and has participated in academic events such as ‘Artistic movements, political movements? and ’Creativity as a social phenomenon in art” both organized by the FES Acatlan.

Zaira Navarrete Cazales, National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico.

Full-time Professor in the area of Educational Research in the Department of Pedagogy of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UNAM. Professor and tutor in the Graduate Program in Pedagogy, and in the Graduate Program in Gender Studies, also at UNAM. National Researcher of the SNII-Conahcyt, Level II. Doctor in Sciences in the Specialty of Educational Research by the DIE-Cinvestav-IPN. Winner of the “Arturo Rosenblueth Award 2016”, for best doctoral thesis in the area of Social Sciences and Humanities; and winner of the Distinction Recognition National University for Young Academics 2023 in the area of Teaching in humanities of the UNAM. Her lines of research are: 1) Construction of identities, 2) Professional training in universities, technological and normal schools, 3) History and perspective of pedagogy, 4) Policies for inclusion, innovation and uses of ICT in education, 5) Comparative and international education, and 6) Agenda 2030 of UNESCO, analyzed from the perspective of Political Discourse Analysis and Comparative Studies. He is responsible or co-responsible for 5 collective research projects. She is part of ten Boards and Editorial Committees of specialized journals in Education, and is a reviewer in more than 20. She is Honorary President of the Iberoamerican Society of Comparative Education and Honorary President of the Mexican Society of Comparative Education-World Council of Comparative Education Societies, NGO of UNESC.

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Published
2024-06-30
How to Cite
Varela Valdés, M. F., & Navarrete Cazales, Z. (2024). Perspectives of biopolitical analysis on university . Higher Education and Society Journal (ESS), 36(1), 97-116. https://doi.org/10.54674/ess.v36i1.904
Issue
Vol 36 No 1 (2024): Higher education governance, government and management
Section
Articles Thematic Dossier

Copyright (c) 2024 María Fernanda Varela Valdés, Zaira Navarrete Cazales

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