Recognize, Resist, and Reconstitute: An Eco-Justice Response to Neoliberalism

• In Event: 61.028 - Understanding and Resisting the Neoliberal Takeover of Schools and Society: A Theoretical, Pedagogical, and Historical Intervention

Abstract

This paper seeks to address the often un-identified cultural assumptions embedded within neoliberalism; specifically, the authors explore what ecofeminist Val Plumwood (2002) describes as centric thinking, leading to a logic of domination (Warren, 1990). The authors argue that social justice educators and activists who are committed to critiquing neoliberalism must take into consideration the ways in which a logic of domination undergirds the unjust and destructive social and economic ideologies and policies that constitute neoliberalism. The authors explore how acts of neoliberal enclosure, or the privatization of the commons, perpetuate unjust and destructive ways of thinking and living. The authors introduce how an EcoJustice approach, drawing from ecofeminist frameworks (Plumwood, 1993, 2002), identifies and examines the impacts of neoliberal policies and practices dominated by “free” market ideology (Author, 2011). The authors assert that educators can challenge harmful discourses that support the “Illusion of Disembeddedness” that informs Western cultural norms and assumptions. The authors first explain how the “Illusion of Disembeddedness” functions within Western assumptions and understandings; next, an alternative conceptualization is presented. The authors suggest that EcoJustice educators present students with a framework of Ecological Understanding. In this framework, interdependence is highlighted, and hierarchized binaries are ruptured. This alternative framework focuses on interrupting the valuation of individualism while focusing on the importance of resisting enclosure and restoring the commons. The authors end the paper by providing a concrete example of how K-12 educators can reconstitute a Common Core based lesson using an Ecological Understanding framework; they show how this framework challenges neoliberalism and promotes ideas and practices of interdependence.

Authors

• John Joseph Lupinacci, Washington State University - Pullman

• Alison Happel-Parkins, The University of Memphis