Mayo Peter - Hegemony and Education Under Neoliberalism

Neoliberalism from the outset has been an educational project, seeking to form and transform societies in its own impoverished image of market relations and the cold cash nexus. Resistance to its imperatives continues unabated around the globe, with militant student movements and trade union struggles in school and university systems playing a particularly important role in highlighting neoliberalisms ethical and political bankruptcy. But what are the viable alternatives? In this wide-ranging and illuminating study, Peter Mayo dialogues with the educational thought of Antonio Gramsci, seeking to find resources in a classic thinker of the twentieth century in order to confront the political challenges of the twenty-first. Focusing in particular on the relevance of Gramscis conception of the integral state as a pedagogical relationship, Mayo convincingly demonstrates how Gramscis philosophy of praxis can both strengthen critical perspectives in the field of education studies, and also helps us to understand the centrality of pedagogical relationships for contemporary hegemonic politics.

Peter D. Thomas, Brunel University, UK, author of The Gramscian Moment: Philosophy, Hegemony and Marxism (Brill 2009, Haymarket Books 2010).

Peter Mayo is a Gramscian scholar of considerable standing. In this persuasive book he points to conceptual and political benefits of understanding the contemporary neoliberal state through a Gramscian lens. He demonstrates how education, understood through Gramscis signature concepts, is central to the neoliberal project. In doing so he brings Gramsci into dialogue with critics of neoliberalism and capitalism from different parts of the world. Like Gramsci he also illustrates how education is potentially counter-hegemonic and can and should serve subaltern populations and places.

Jane Kenway, Monash University, AU, co-author of Haunting the Knowledge Economy (Routledge, 2006)

References to Gramsci are common in critical pedagogy. But usually they never go beyond some superficial evocation of one Gramscian concept or the other. In contrast, Peter Mayo offers at the same time a comprehensive reading of Gramscis thought in all its complexity and an attempt to insist on its relevance for critical pedagogy. The result is an impressive theoretical synthesis that treats education as the site of contested hegemony and consequently of a struggle for emancipation. In a period of hegemonic crisis of neoliberalism and of important movements, such an attempt to re-read and to re-think Gramsci is more than welcome. Critical pedagogues and anyone interested in critical social theory must read this book

Panagiotis Sotiris, author of Communism and Philosophy. The Theoretical Endeavor of Louis Althusser (in Greek)

Peter Mayo reminds us that Gramsci is still relevant, though gone for almost a century. In this much-needed book, Mayo provides a thorough going discussion of Gramscis relevance for education in a neoliberal world. In Canada, adult educators face challenges of endless cutbacks, limited support for education, and a government culture of anti-intellectualism. Gramscis understanding of hegemony and resistance provides hope and inspiration in the face of these sources of oppression.

Leona English, St. Francis Xavier University, Canada

Lifelong philological research into Gramscian theory has permitted Peter Mayo to cogently demonstrate that the Italian thinkers idea of education transcends its traditional meaning and is instead located at the core of his overall political project. Thanks to education, Gramsci introduces intersubjectivity and democratic forms of negotiations in his Marxist theory of state and politics. Peter Mayos volume vouches a thorough and badly needed critique of neoliberal ideology applied to education, with its obsessive stress on market values and individual needs. His book is a powerful indictment of neoliberal attitudes to civil society and a fundamental challenge to the complacency shown by Western governments towards the social inequalities fostered by current neoliberal politics.

Mauro Pala, University of Cagliari, Italy, and editor of Narrazioni egemoniche. Gramsci, letteratura e societ civile (Il Mulino, 2014)

Antonio Gramsci meets education in this lucid and vivid tale of alternative education for critical democracy. Peter Mayo thinks with Gramsci to take the reader on a global ride through the history of revolutionary literacy movements in Latin America, the Mediterranean, and Global South. The books breath of history, theory, and politics makes it essential reading for anyone interested in modes of emancipatory education and learning in neoliberal times.

Linda Herrera, Director of Global Studies in Education, University of Illinois, USA, author of Revolution in the Age of Social Media (Verso, 2014), and editor of Wired Citizenship: Youth Learning and Activism in the Middle East (Routledge, 2014)

Based in a holistic exposition and appraisal of Gramscis writings that are of relevance to education in neoliberal times, this bookrather than simply applying Gramscis theories to issues in educationargues that education constitutes the leitmotif of his entire oeuvre and lies at the heart of his conceptualization of the ancient Greek term hegemony that was used by other political theorists before him. Starting from this understanding, the book goes on to compare Gramscis theories with those of later thinkers in the development of a critical pedagogy that can confront Neoliberalism in all its forms.

Peter Mayo is a Professor in the Department of Education Studies at the University of Malta. Most recent books include: Learning with Adults: A Critical Pedagogical Introduction (recipient of the 2013 Cyril O. Houle award); Politics of Indignation; Echoes from Freire for a Critically Engaged Pedagogy; and Lorenzo Milani, the School of Barbiana and the Struggle for Social Justice.

Routledge Studies in Education and Neoliberalism

Series editor Dave Hill, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford and Cambridge, England

1 The Rich World and the Impoverishment of Education
Diminishing Democracy, Equity and Workers Rights
Edited by Dave Hill

2 Contesting Neoliberal Education
Public Resistance and Collective Advance
Edited by Dave Hill

3 Global Neoliberalism and Education and Its Consequences
Edited by Dave Hill and Ravi Kumar

4 The Developing World and State Education
Neoliberal Depredation and Egalitarian Alternatives
Edited by Dave Hill and Ellen Rosskam

5 The Gates Foundation and the Future of US Public Schools
Edited by Philip E. Kovacs

6 Colonized Schooling Exposed
Progressive Voices for Transformative Educational and Social Change
Edited by Pierre Wilbert Orelus, Curry S. Malott, and Romina Pacheco

7 Underprivileged School Children and the Assault on Dignity
Policy Challenges and Resistance
Edited by Julia Hall

8 Hegemony and Education under Neoliberalism
Insights from Gramsci
Peter Mayo

Insights from Gramsci

Peter Mayo

First published 2015
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2015 Taylor & Francis

The right of Peter Mayo to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.