Book chapter 237 views
Steering not Rowing: Mental Health, Higher Education and Regulatory Capitalism
Ashley Frawley 
,
Kathryn Ecclestone,
Chloe Wakeham,
Kenneth McLaughlin
,
Kathryn Ecclestone,
Chloe Wakeham,
Kenneth McLaughlin
Education, Parenting and Mental Health Care in Europe: The Contradictions of Building Autonomous Individuals
Swansea University Authors:
Ashley Frawley , Kathryn Ecclestone, Chloe Wakeham
Abstract
Examining regulatory capitalism’s increased emphasis on ‘steering not rowing’, this chapter describes developments in mental health support in United Kingdom Higher Education. We sketch out the ways in which support increasingly takes the form of regulatory rules for emotions and behaviours. The shi...
| Published in: | Education, Parenting and Mental Health Care in Europe: The Contradictions of Building Autonomous Individuals |
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| Published: |
Routledge
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa64756 |
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| Abstract: |
Examining regulatory capitalism’s increased emphasis on ‘steering not rowing’, this chapter describes developments in mental health support in United Kingdom Higher Education. We sketch out the ways in which support increasingly takes the form of regulatory rules for emotions and behaviours. The shift towards whole institution approaches and increasingly expansive definitions of mental ill-health have created spaces in which mental health support becomes a tool for the regulation of everyday life. A proliferation of individuals take on the role of managers and regulators ‘supporting’ mental health rather than providing more direct forms of ‘treatment’ for mental ill-health. Moreover, while responsiveness to student mental health claims was partially due to risks allegedly faced by universities as ‘communities of fate’ (Waggoner and Goldman 2005), risk continues to be problematic, and is repeatedly shifted downstream. While much critical literature on the wellbeing industry conceptualises these phenomena as attempts to create self-governing neoliberal subjects, we present a more complicated picture regarding self-governance and autonomy. The resultant invitation to students is not necessarily to embody such ideal subjects, but rather to problematise self-reliance and offer instead an injunction to seek out constantly external guidance for rules and regulations governing the correct conduct of life. |
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| College: |
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Funders: |
British Academy |