"Raising aspirations" for education among young people in low socioeconomic regions has become a widespread policy prescription for increasing human capital investment and economic competitiveness in so-called "knowledge economies". However, policy tends not to address difficult social, cultural, economic and political…

This essay discusses how Foucault's study of power relates to more general reexamination of the foundations of critical traditions, especially decentering of the subject as part of a broader consideration of social epistemology. The paper explores two concepts of power (sovereignty/repression and deployment/production of power) and examines the…