The Work of Desire: Elite Schools’ Multi-scalar Markets

Abstract

Elite schools proudly proclaim their desirability. Internationalism has recently become integral to this. This chapter considers the work and workers involved, focusing first on how the schools try to enlist teachers to this desirable school project through the mobilization of affirming affects. It shows how teachers respond to such attempts. It also illustrates how marketization and internationalization have altered elite schools, as workplaces, drawing out the implications for those who work for, and with, them. It draws from a multi-sited global ethnography of seven elite schools around the world, but concentrates on one in India and another in Australia. It offers a distinctive way of theorizing this through Frédéric Lordon’s evocative ideas. Lordon brings together Marxist theories of wage labour and Spinoza’s anthropology of passions.

Founders in Melbourne, Australia , is an elegant school. It has stately buildings, luxurious well-tended gardens and is set in a wealthy suburb. It is holding an event for prospective school clients and about 60 parents have come along. On arrival they are pleasantly greeted by well-groomed students and taken to the school hall. I join them.

While we wait we are treated to a musical performance by a senior boys’ ensemble. It’s impressive. The Deputy and other senior staff address us. They explain what the school stands for educationally and morally. We are told it has strong links to the local community , that it is proudly multi-cultural and has a global vision. I look around to try to assess how “multi-cultural” the assembled parents might be. About a third appear “Asian” and the rest are white. But beyond this I can’t tell what multiple cultures might exist amongst them.

After the addresses we break into groups and are taken on a guided tour. I join one group consisting mainly of Asians. We are led around by one of the school’s marketing staff and taken to its most impressive areas: the well-stocked library, the modern science labs, the art and sculpture studios showing students’ ambitious artworks, the high-tech media labs, the full-sized swimming pool and the well-equipped gymnasium . As we move through these various spaces, specialist teachers informally address us. Few questions are asked and we don’t talk to each other. The tour lasts about an hour before we are dismissed, sent off with promotional materials in hand. Subsequently parents may seek to enrol their child, but ultimately, the school will choose whom it will accept.

I find out later that some of the prospective parents are from China and that an education agent has suggested that they visit this school and other specific schools. The education agent will probably receive a fee from whichever school finally admits their client. If the parents live overseas, the school will charge them a great deal more than it charges local parents.