Abstract

The notion of the entrepreneurial self describes how changes that have taken place at the level of government – towards open competition, public participation, performance management based on outputs and feedback, for example – require us to understand and conduct ourselves in particular ways. In recent years it has come to feature in the way we understand the purposes of education, and ourselves in relation to it, in particular ways, and thus has become a focus of educational philosophy and theory. The term entrepreneurial in the entrepreneurial self comes not, or not only, from critical educational and social theorists, however; it is the language of policy itself. We are explicitly addressed as needing to be entrepreneurial. The focus here is on the entrepreneurial self as a particular form of subjectivation operative today. That is, the notion of the entrepreneurial self refers to particular discourses and practices according to which we are governed and govern ourselves. This self-understanding is constituted not only in and through formal educational institutions but also through many facets of our daily lives. A shift in recent decades from the hierarchical government of the nation-state to the entrepreneurial governance of late neoliberalism not only constitutes but also requires the entrepreneurial self. This will be outlined with reference to three figures of the entrepreneurial self: the parent; the citizen; and the researcher.