A schizoanalytical praxis for social justice education

Abstract

This paper uses Deleuzoguattarian schizoanalysis to interrogate concepts of social justice in relation to the crisis of neo-liberal capitalism by referring to the work of the Situationist International movement, the posthuman philosophy of Giles Deleuze and Félix Guattari as well as Afrofuturism. Providing an array of new theoretical responses as well as pedagogical models that directly engage with social justice issues, Deleuze and Guattari offer an immanent model for a politics and pedagogy that is primarily concerned with becoming. I argue that finding new ways of dealing with the notion of change, or in terms of Deleuzoguattarian philosophy, becoming, is critical to making sense of contemporary concerns around issues of decolonisation as well as the move toward progressive transformation in education. This paper argues, furthermore, that addressing issues of social justice requires a type of shizoanalytical approach that is future-orientated and aligned with posthuman and not postmodern concerns. A schizoanalytical approach, as I will argue, intersects not only with critical posthumanism, but also with the new materialist and affective turns in current scholarship, drawing together varied environmental, political, and social concerns that pertain to the practice and scholarship of contemporary pedagogy in South Africa and elsewhere.