Neoliberal Ideology

The assertion above in the opening quote means to distinguish positionings towards this governing ideology through three approaches to neo-liberalism. Th~ politi~al and economic theory behind neoliberal ideology is one of the mam ~rch1tectural and philosophical features of the educational policy paradigm m the Western world since the late 1970s and early 1980s. The notion of 'policy enactments' means to consider some of the 'lived effects' of neoliberal policy on our contemporary educational discourses and on lived experiences and narratives that occur in education settings and that testify to these changes .

Panel 30: Great Refusals: Refusing One Dimensionality Today

The Dialectics of Liberation in an Age of Neoliberal Capitalism

International Herbert Marcuse Society

Seventh Biennial Conference

26-28 October 2017

York University

https://marcuseconference.wordpress.com/

The paper argues that education often plays an important role in the process of social exclusion and that it can be seen as an instrument to maintain stratification. The goal of this paper is to discuss this particular role of education by referring to the theory of social reproduction, to concept of hidden curriculum and by analyzing some of the most dominant discourses about social mobility.

The number of Taiwanese working holidaymakers in Australia has grown rapidly over the last decade. They are criticized as ‘losers’ and are labelled ‘Tai-Lao’ in Taiwanese society. This thesis explores how Taiwanese working holidaymakers respond to the public narratives in Taiwan through their experiences in Australia and their achievements after returning home.
      Based on 31 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Taiwanese working holidaymakers conducted in Taiwan, I show that, in response to the prejudice they experience in Taiwan, these young people refute, relabel, or even redefine the term ‘Tai-Lao’ to avoid a negative social identity. Nevertheless, they also unconsciously reproduce prejudices, which has led to internal conflicts within this group. Some of them dream of being financial winners, while others identify themselves as cosmopolitans from a Western perspective. This thesis critically examines issues such as English language skills, cultural values and social networks as important resources for their identity formation within the Australian workplace. These resources enable them to make sense of who they are while at the same time leading to intragroup comparison between these Taiwanese. Moreover, becoming successful returnees requires negotiation between the self and neoliberal ideology. This negotiation enables them to commodify their experiences in Australia and forces them to participate in the competition in the Taiwanese labour market.
    Inscribing itself within wider theoretical discussions about the role of capital, reflexivity, postcolonialism and cosmopolitanism on identity formation in a neoliberal economy, this thesis proposes the notion of ‘malleable success.’ A working holiday is seen as a journey for Taiwanese young people’s identity formation. On the one hand, they try to become successful in Australia through their aspirations of becoming cosmopolitan subjects. On the other hand, they need to negotiate neoliberal ideology, social stratifications, and socio-cultural expectations of being a successful young person in Taiwanese society. Hence, success, for them, is malleable and shifting. The idea of malleable success is, I argue, essential for interpreting these young people’s identity formation in neoliberal Taiwan.

‘Tai-Lao’ is a Chinese term which literally means low-skilled migrant
workers from the lower class in Taiwan. In current Taiwanese
society, this phrase is used to criticise those young Taiwanese
who encounter difficulties in the competition for white-collar jobs
in Taiwan and travel to Australia for a working holiday. Based on
31 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese working holidaymakers
conducted in Taiwan, this paper argues that, surprisingly, a
working holiday is regarded as downward mobility in Taiwan
although it is a type of temporary migration to the West.
Therefore, ‘Tai-Lao’ is a stigma that works as a classed form of
symbolic violence in Taiwanese society. This violence, which
stems from neoliberal ideology, further reproduces this stigma
through middle-class expectations of global perspectives in
Taiwan. In order to avoid being labelled as ‘Tai-Lao’, Taiwanese
working holidaymakers try to redefine the Tai-Lao identity from a
Western perspective. However, it is still difficult to reduce this
stigma due to their lack of personal achievements in the
Taiwanese labour market. Only those returnees who successfully
commodify their own Western experience and increase their
personal market value are able to destigmatise themselves and
regard ‘being Tai-Lao’ as a process of being successful within
Taiwan’s neoliberal system.