A growing body of research incorporates children’s perspectives into the research process. If we are to take children’s perspectives seriously in education research, research methodologies must be capable of addressing issues that matter to children. This article engages in a theoretical discussion that considers how a posthuman research methodology can support such an effort. Piaget’s early and lesser known qualitative studies on children’s conception of the world are re-read along with Karen Barad’s posthuman theory, using Catherine Malabou’s concept of plasticity. (...) Through a plastic reading of Piaget and Barad, I consider how a posthuman theoretical framework might contribute to research seeking to access children’s perspectives. Before concluding, I reflect on some ethical concerns regarding posthuman research in education. (shrink)

This article examines Catherine Malabou’s philosophical concept of plasticity as a new materialist methodology. Given that plasticity simultaneously maintains the ability to receive, give, and annihilate form, plasticity and plastic readings offer material-discursive possibilities for educational research. This article begins by discussing the evolution of plasticity, applications thereof, and its location within new materialist philosophy. To then demonstrate the possibilities of plasticity, this article takes the example of educational policy reform in relation to technology-centered models of education. A plastic reading (...) of ongoing policy discourses argues that conceptualizing policy, stakeholders, and technology as plastic contribute new scholarly understandings regarding the shape and movement of educational policy formation. Significantly, the methodology of plastic readings provides an ideal lens through which to approach educational policy development as a series of entangled ideas and interests. In addition, plastic readings enable the re-envisioned types of analysis and critique increasingly called for by qualitative methodologists and new materialist scholars. (shrink)

Some of Catherine Malabou’s recent work has developed her conception of plasticity (originally deployed in a reading of Hegelian Aufhebung ) in relation to neuroscience. This development clarifies and advances her attempt to bring contemporary theory into dialogue with the natural sciences, while indirectly indicating her engagement with the French tradition in philosophy of science and philosophy of medicine, especially the work of Georges Canguilhem. I argue that we can see her development of plasticity as an answer to some specific (...) shortcomings in Canguilhem’s conception of organic or biological normativity as advanced in The Normal and the Pathological . Such a view of plasticity shows its potential to provide the basis for a powerful critical engagement with contemporary conceptions of selfhood, self-transformation, subjectivation, and the general theory of norms. (shrink)

O artigo pretende apresentar a neurofilosofia de Catherine Malabou em alguns dos seus principais eixos. Para tanto, após dividir a obra da filósofa em quatro segmentos, dirige-se aos estudos sobre o cérebro que investigam as questões epistemológicas e políticas que as neurociências colocam para as humanidades. A investigação se dá em três momentos: a) Que fazer do nosso cérebro?, que propõe superar o dualismo como modelo da resistência às neurociências e incorporar a biologia no altermundismo; b) os textos que criticam (...) a noção atual de biopolítica como chave para exclusão da problemática neuronal e biológica das principais questões ético-políticas do nosso tempo; e, finalmente c) a questão da inteligência artificial e como o problema do cérebro colabora para a construção de um novo paradigma na educação e na política a partir da relação com o cérebro azul artificial. Finalmente, conclui propondo uma internalização da problemática neurofilosófica como superação do gap natureza/simbólico que mantém as humanidades presas a uma ideia de transcendência. (shrink)

O artigo pretende apresentar a neurofilosofia de Catherine Malabou em alguns dos seus principais eixos. Para tanto, após dividir a obra da filósofa em quatro segmentos, dirige-se aos estudos sobre o cérebro que investigam as questões epistemológicas e políticas que as neurociências colocam para as humanidades. A investigação se dá em três momentos: a) Que fazer do nosso cérebro?, que propõe superar o dualismo como modelo da resistência às neurociências e incorporar a biologia no altermundismo; b) os textos que criticam (...) a noção atual de biopolítica como chave para exclusão da problemática neuronal e biológica das principais questões ético-políticas do nosso tempo; e, finalmente c) a questão da inteligência artificial e como o problema do cérebro colabora para a construção de um novo paradigma na educação e na política a partir da relação com o cérebro azul artificial. Finalmente, conclui propondo uma internalização da problemática neurofilosófica como superação do gap natureza/simbólico que mantém as humanidades presas a uma ideia de transcendência. (shrink)

Journal of Philosophy of Education, EarlyView.

Bildung has lost its critical potential, some thinkers worry, but I put forward that this might not necessarily be the case. Jan Masschelein and Norbert Ricken argue that modernity has seen Bildung and bio-power grow complicit, effectively negating Bildung’s critical edge by turning criticism into a necessary aspect of contemporary society. However, a development of this sort seems to demand a view of both Bildung and bio-power as sovereign entities that subvert the individuals who constitute them. I challenge this view (...) by reference to Catherine Malabou's philosophy. Malabou argues that bio-power seems to suffer from a residual sovereign element which upholds a separation between a material and a symbolic mode of life, even if bio-power was originally thought as a break with sovereign thinking altogether. Malabou’s engagement with the biological concept epigenesis by way of her own concept plasticity provides an ostensibly non-sovereign approach to bio-power, one that emphasizes change, creativity, accident, and reciprocal influence. I suggest that this point of view might challenge the apparent sovereignty of bio-power and open up for a non-sovereign formulation of Bildung. (shrink)