Privilege, Agency and Affect

Understanding the Production and Effects of Action

C. Maxwell, P. Aggleton, C. Maxwell, P. Aggleton

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781137292629
• eBook ISBN: 9781137292636
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Theory & Practice

Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and engaging with new empirical evidence from around the world, this collection examines how privilege, agency and affect are linked, and where possibilities for social change might lie.

Part I

Privilege, Emotions and Reproduction Through Elite Education

1

The Libidinal Economy of the Globalising Elite School Market

Jane Kenway, Johannah Fahey and Aaron Koh

Introduction

Elite schools are banks of emotion where the individuals and social classes that they serve deposit their desires and gain social dividends. They are also registers of social recognition and serve as spaces of collective capacity for their privileged clients. Elite schools have long been sites for the exercise of a form of affective agency by the wealthy and socially powerful. Many such people and groups have heavy emotional investments in the schools that their families have attended over several generations. Habitual use of such schools, over extended time, signifies their enduring social stature. Other wealthy parents, those without such cross-generational attachments to a particular school but with ardent social aspirations, search relentlessly for an elite school that matches their desires and assures their children’s educational and social ascendency.

The elite school market, which now extends beyond national boarders, is a bank of emotion and register of recognition par excellence. Indeed, we argue that it has its own libidinal economy in which desire, disappointment and regular capitalist reinvention proceed hand in hand. As these opening comments suggest, we draw on that body of thought which equates affect with emotion and which sees emotions as profoundly social (e.g. Ahmed, 2004). Our discussion here is underpinned by the view that ‘emotions flow between people, they animate social, cultural, political and economic collectivities and travel across time, place and space’ (Kenway & Youdell, 2011: 135).

Drawing on Weber’s notion of ‘affectual action’, whereby action is ‘determined by the actor’s emotional states and orientations’ (Weber, 1968: 24–25), we introduce the term ‘affective agency’. This term highlights the ways in which individuals’ emotional states within the libidinal economy of the elite school market are linked to a form of agency (Mouzelis, 2008) not constructed according to temporal dimensions (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998) or reflexivity (Giddens, 1993; Archer, 2003) but rather determined by privilege. In terms of our understanding of ‘agency’, we do not want to get locked into the binary logics that characterise such debates, but rather we maintain that privilege energises action within a capitalist system. Therefore, in relation to privileged people, it is not a case of the capitalist structure limiting individuals’ capacities, but rather a case of it enabling and actually multiplying agentic abilities (Lopez & Scott, 2000). Furthermore, it is our contention that individuals’ affective agency also has wider collective consequences. These help to determine broader social structures within the libidinal economy of the elite schools market, such as class structure.

There is no easy way to sum up Lyotard’s complex theory of libidinal economy. It involves him mobilising Freud’s notion of the libido as a conceptual conceit and developing a theory that takes stock of the diverse forces and desires that operate in any political or social situation. In other words, Lyotard’s notion of the libidinal economy is a philosophy of the economy of desire. It is a repudiation of Lyotard’s earlier links with Marx’s economic dialectics through its synthesis with Freud’s psychoanalysis, both of which (i.e. Marxism and psychoanalysis) Bennett (2010) identifies as the ‘two traditions of theoretical critique of capital’ (p. 106). Freud’s notion of libidinal energy is an instinctual force (see Kenway et al., 2006). The unconscious workings of desire cannot be rationalised or controlled by the Ego and are repressed in the process of psychological maturation and socialisation. Desires, or what Lyotard (1993: xiii) calls ‘intensities’, are free-flowing impulses ‘characterized by their displaceability’ and resistance to closure, which return from the repressed and rupture the stability of conscious organisations. The unconscious is ‘what is there and yet is hidden … a blank space in a visible text’ (Foucault, 1973: 374). Lyotard ‘uses the premises of psychoanalytic thought to point to “a blank space” in the “visible text” of economic discourse’ (Cooper & Murphy, 1999: 239), or more specifically capitalism.

Lyotard describes capitalism as a social structure that shares similarities with the Ego or consciousness insofar as its function is to modulate and moderate, repress and exploit libidinal energies. It is the Ego which brings ‘reason, order, logic, and social acceptability to the otherwise uncontrolled and potentially harmful biological drives’ (Rivkin & Ryan, 2004: 391), but it cannot fully control them. Lyotard identifies a comparable operation of desire and instinctual drives in capitalism:

In simple terms, the entrepreneurial side of the capitalist economic system, or Capital, sees the energy of each feeling or desire as an opportunity, as something to be exploited. But the regulative, systematic, side of Capital needs to bring these individual desires and feelings into the system, through the power of comparison of monetary value. Therefore, Capital has a death drive, the drive to bend everything to a common measure, and an Eros, the drive to move into novel zones, to discover new opportunities. (Williams, 1998: 60)

Accordingly ‘political economy is always already libidinal economy … capitalism is always already invested with libido’ (Bennett, 2010: 106–108).

There can be no doubt that an elite school market exists and that it unleashes forceful, even fearful, emotional energies. Thus the notion of the libidinal economy and the functioning of desire within this domain help us to understand its deeper logics.

We begin with a discussion of the elite school market as a libidinal economy and then turn to Hong Kong as a case in point. In Hong Kong, elite schools are caught up in an education frenzy, which is, in part, fuelled by concerns about the effects of the latest school curriculum reforms and intense competition to gain the limited places at top local universities. This frenzy leads some parents to buy local elite school education for their children and every available educational add-on. Other parents abandon education in Hong Kong and send their children to elite schools (usually boarding schools) overseas.

We tell two tales here arising from three weeks of fieldwork in each school over 2010 and 2011. During this time, two or three of us are fully immersed in the school observing and conducting interviews and focus group discussions (Epstein, Fahey & Kenway, 2013).¹

The first is about how one elite boys’ school in Hong Kong, Cathedral College, navigates this emotional ferment. The second is about the affective intensities of the girls and parents who leave the Hong Kong education system behind and seek superiority through an elite girls’ boarding school in England that we have called Highbury Hall. Both cases illustrate the constituting force of the emotional energies associated with markets in elite schools. The two schools discussed are part of a multi-sited global ethnography of elite nine schools around the world.²

Highbury Hall is an elite independent Anglican girls’ boarding and day school in England founded in 1853. Its elite status can be partly attributed to the many notable former students working in the arts, business, politics and the sciences. Its status can also be attributed to the school’s academic standing, for in 2011, 87% of the girls completing their A-levels at Highbury Hall received A* or A grades. While in the past it catered predominantly to UK students, nowadays 31% of the school’s students are from overseas.

Cathedral College, an elite all boys’ school in Hong Kong, was founded in 1851. The school is noted for producing many of Hong Kong’s politicians and government leaders. Its elite standing is in no small part because it is an EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) school. In Hong Kong, parents and the public generally recognise EMI schools as schools of higher social standing and prestige. Furthermore, Cathedral College belongs to an exclusive category of schools known in local terms as ‘DSS’ (Direct Subsidy Schools). As a ‘DSS’ (and only an estimated 10% of all Hong Kong schools are DSS – Chan, 2008), Cathedral College charges fees on top of receiving government grants.

The libidinal economy of the globalising elite school market

Eliteness in schooling is an elusive quality but usually involves some degree of longevity, consistent and significant success in end-of-school public exams and entry to prestigious universities and faculties; the ongoing production of influential alumni across government, industry, the professions and, in certain countries, the military; connections with powerful figures in a range of significant spheres of influence; and, overall, high public esteem. It also often, although certainly not always, involves a school’s wealth, the high fees it charges and the capacity of most of the parents to pay such fees, the facilities and resources it offers and high levels of income from donations and bequests. However, eliteness may accrue through highly selective merit-based entry and exit, even when such wealth is present to a much lesser degree. In Barbados and Singapore this is certainly the case. Overall elite schooling always involves exclusivity on grounds of wealth or merit and claims of superiority of some sort.

If we think about the notion of the elite school on a global scale, it also must be recognised that what is regarded as elite in one country or locality may not be regarded as elite in others. There are diverse types of elite schools around the world. There is an assortment of funding and governance arrangements and different nomenclature in different countries. Globally, elite schools can include private church schools and are variously described as independent, public or private (although not all schools that are labelled in this manner are elite). Depending on their location they may be financially independent or may receive some government funding. There are academically selective government schools, some of which may be totally reliant on the state for funding and some of which may charge fees to top up their government allocations. Then there are certain high-end international schools, the most high-end being those in Switzerland that serve the mega wealthy from around the world.

On the global stage, relatively new forms of schooling are emerging, which have some potential to, over time, destabilise conventional schooling hierarchies. Examples include the English elite school ‘outpost’, ‘satellite’, ‘branch’, ‘clone’ or ‘replica’ schools, or sets of schools, in various countries in the Middle East and Asia. English is the medium of instruction in such schools and this is seen to add an element of eliteness. The Asian examples include Marlborough International School in Malaysia; Harrow International Schools in Bangkok, Beijing and Hong Kong; and Dulwich Colleges or International Schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul and Singapore. While such schools may have links with their English counterpart, and may even be licensed by such schools, they may also be operated by private, for-profit, companies and involve a form of elite school franchising or ‘school chains’. The ‘parent’ school may even take a share of fee income. Further, certain global education companies are involved in the development, support and promotion of international schools. Such companies include International Schools Services (ISS), the World Class Learning Group, the United World College, Nord Anglia Education and GEMS. These also, ultimately, seek to provide at least some schools that can claim elite status and compete with more traditional elite schools.

Elite schools have always competed with each other to attract what they regard as the most acceptable sub-national or national customers and clearly they are still avidly competitive in this regard. The elite school market thrives on competitive comparison but only in relation to other elite schools. Our ethnographic data clearly demonstrate that such elite school inter-referencing is the norm for all parties. Non-elite schools, if mentioned at all, are usually dismissively or negatively referenced.

But with the expansion in the type and number of such schools around the world and the pressure of such global education companies as those noted previously, the market in elite schools is expanding beyond the sub-national and national level and becoming increasingly regional and global. (Although, there are also some corporate for-profit schools in India which call themselves ‘international’ schools, which adds an element of eliteness, even when they clearly have no international affiliations.) Of course, there are reasons internal to some schools and systems that are encouraging them to widen their reach. These include the financial benefits but also those associated with having a diverse (‘cosmopolitan’) student intake, which is seen to add value (Kenway & Fahey, forthcoming).

But one of the main reasons this extended market is emerging is because of the increasing mobility of various types of privileged populations who both create and absorb the libidinal energies of the market and who are sufficiently prosperous to afford the associated financial costs. These different populations are subject to somewhat different forces and have both diverse and shared desires.

Several patterns are evident. At the very top of this market is, what is variously called, the global/transnational elite or the transnational capitalist class or ruling class. As Robinson (2012) has argued for some time, even despite their overlaps and their competing fractions, it is useful to distinguish, conceptually, between transnational elites and the transnational capitalist class. He says:

[M]uch debate has centered on the relationship between classes and elites and whether or not these are commensurate analytical categories. By elites I refer to dominant political, socio-economic, and cultural strata, and in particular, to capitalists and landlords, along with top level managers and administrators of the state and other major social institutions and leadership positions in the political system. (p. 351)

However, we understand them, this set of exceptionally powerful and privileged people has its own ridiculously expensive luxury market niche, which includes one Swiss boarding school understood as the most expensive school in the world at a cost of over US$113,000 per annum.³ Extreme exclusivity, luxury and privacy are the modus operandi of such schools and this is what their clients pay for.

In association with those at this global apex of power are those who through their work help to secure and protect conditions for capital accumulation in a given location or globally, and they are rewarded handsomely for doing this. They are highly paid employees of multinational companies. These people move along the global routes laid out by their employers who usually offer them very attractive incentives to regularly relocate, including relocation and accommodation support, paying for school fees and for regular trips back to their home countries.

Of course, others are also on the move for work, staying for a while in one place, then moving on. Although not as wealthy or influential, the employees of NGOs and various international governmental agencies are certainly not financially strapped. They scour the globe or region for the right school (invariably a boarding school) for their children. Safety, security and stability are among the primary concerns.

The mobile parents mentioned so far value highly the reassurance provided by a school’s globally recognised and respected curriculum, assessment, symbols and rituals. The International Baccalaureate and the Cambridge International Exam systems are examples of qualifications that are recognised as providing a global passport to success.

Migrancy is also a feature here. Some families shift residency for the purpose of gaining citizenship in another, more socially advantageous, country. Here education is part of a strategy of migration into these other countries and their superior educational and social opportunities. Ong (2007) calls these people ‘flexible citizens’ and talks about these practices as ‘global accumulation strategies’. Such parents in our focus groups place a high priority on schools with records of high academic achievement and university entrance; geographical mobility is about social mobility through education.

Then there are the families (particularly mothers) who move for their children’s schooling and return to their home country once this is complete. And finally, in other cases, children travel alone to overseas schools and board, live in ‘home-stays’ or with relatives while the parents remain in the hom...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Notes on Contributors
• Introduction: Privilege, Agency and Affect – Understanding the Production and Effects of Action
• Part I Privilege, Emotions and Reproduction Through Elite Education
• Part II Agency and Affect In and Through Higher Education
• Part III Privilege, Dominance and Hierarchy Between Families and Communities
• Part IV Agency, Privilege and Social Justice
• Part V End Notes
• Index