Neoliberalism, English, and spoiled identity: The case of a high-achieving university graduate in Hong Kong

Neoliberalism, English, and spoiled identity: The case of a high-achieving university graduate in Hong Kong

• Yeung, Steven The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Gray, John University College London

Language in Society, 52(4), 595-616, 2023

Cambridge University Press

2023

• P Social Context of Education
  • PE Law & Education ; Politics & Education

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Post-Secondary Education

• View Full Text 全文連結

Neoliberalism has permeated every sphere of social life, including education and language learning, seeking to produce a particular kind of subject, homo economicus , with the dispositions required to manage the self as an economic project. This article unravels the workings of the unfulfilled promise of neoliberal English education and its damaging consequences on a high-achieving female university graduate in the context of contemporary Hong Kong. Combining Marxist and Foucauldian perspectives, while simultaneously drawing on Goffman's concepts of stigma and spoiled identity, our analysis is informed by positioning theory and captures the impact of what we have termed the English language gaze on our informant's sense of self. Seen through a Foucauldian lens, the data reveal the extent, but also the limits, of her assimilation of neoliberal governmentality, while the Marxist lens allows us to account for her plight in terms of alienation and the resulting stigma of a spoiled identity. Copyright © 2023 Cambridge University Press.

• English

Journal Articles

• 00474045

• 10.1017/S0047404522000203

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/32772ec7

2024-05-17