Meditation’, ‘emotions’ and modes of neoliberal subjectivation in Argentine schools. An analysis in relation to the discourses on health and disease

Abstract

This essay presents some reflections on the process of emergence and popularization of “mindfulness” practices at schools in Argentina. The starting hypothesis is that the introduction of this type of initiative is closely related to changes in contemporary ways of conceiving health and disease. The chosen approach strategy is based, firstly, on identifying some coordinates from which the integration of new age “techniques” in educational institutions can be understood, by investigating people’s representations of about health and therapy. Second, the growing role of the language of new age therapies and certain readings of neurosciences is problematized, at the intersection of contemporary discourses focused on education and health. Finally, an attempt is made to pay for an already existing line of analysis; that links certain ways of the introduction of these new age or mindfulness pedagogical practices to contemporary forms of medicalization and governance of childhoods.