Browsing by Author "Mäkelä, Kalle"

Aims: My main problems of research are: How neoliberalism is producing obediant citizens through special pedagogy? How discourse of exclusion as a apparatus power and a result of collective mentality of governing strengthens the hegemony of neoliberalism and special pedagogy? How special pedagogy as a tool of neoliberalism produces social exclusion and inequality? The aim of my study was to find out, in a foucauldian way, with the help of the speech of special pedagogists, how discourse of special pedagogy as a tool of our neoliberalistic state, produces inequality, social exclusion and obedient citizens. The structure of my study consisted on special pedagogy, theory of Foucault, neoliberalism, empirical material and the phenomenon called social exclusion which encompassed also the thematic interviews of teachers. These forementioned five elements were interacting with each other in the analysis producing new knowledge about action of discourses in our society. Methods: With digital recorder I interviewed five special pedagogists by halfstructural method. My theme was social exclusion in our society. After written down the interviews I analyzed the texts with the help of foucauldian theoretical concepts. In this way I was able to deconstruct different discourses and "naturalities". In the field of qualatative methods my method of research represented the foucauldian way of analyzing the empirical material. In this manner the producers of the speeches were seen as representatives of certain discourse. Those producers of speeches were seen, in turn, as producing and reproducing certain kind of discourse and discoursive talk. Results and conclusions: Analysis of the material engendered following results; special pedagogy produced, pathologized, normalized and categorized its objects as obediant and vulnerable monolithic subjects which were to be stored as socially excluded proletarian labour force for our neoliberalistic nationstate. Medicalization, therapization, and psy-sciences as products of neoliberalism were addressing individual "liberties". Together with the discourse of special pedagogy they created inequality and social exclusion. This was made possible by making people to believe in their individual and "innerborn" qualities instead of seeing the changing and dynamical structures of our neoliberalistic society which produce and reproduce injustice.