Contesting the Neo-liberal Lash-up: Policy paradoxes and possibilities

Abstract

This article draws on ideas generated through a current education policy research study and from philosophers Jacque Rancière and Isabelle Stengers. It argues that in the neo-liberal hegemony, distinctive policy practices (for example bureaucratic policy making and teaching) are being genericised and that the nation-state (Australia) is being de-politicised through consensus. Four policy paradoxes that are based on theorisations of practice are suggested as possible political 'nodes of contestation'.