Theorizing necropolitics in social studies education

• Bretton A. Varga ^[1] ; Mark E. Helmsing ^[2] ; Cathryn van Kessel ^[3] ; Rebecca C. Christ ^[4]
  1. [1] California State University, Chico

     California State University, Chico

     Estados Unidos

     
  2. [2] George Mason University

     George Mason University

     Estados Unidos

     
  3. [3] Texas Christian University

     Texas Christian University

     Estados Unidos

     
  4. [4] Florida International University

     Florida International University

     Estados Unidos

     

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• Localización: Theory and research in social education, ISSN 0093-3104, Vol. 51, Vol. 1, 2023, págs. 47-71
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This article engages with three commonly traversed social studies topics—depictions of violence and death from the French Revolution, during the Vietnam War, and regarding U.S. histories of racial segregation—through the lens of Achille Mbembe’s necropolitics (i.e., political and social machinations of power that determine who lives and who dies). In particular, this article theorizes how specific necropolitical concepts (e.g., necropower, the living dead, and slow death) can be a generative and powerful form of analysis for social studies educators and their students that exposes intersecting complexities between life, death, political alliance, and power. While this article argues that social studies curriculum is replete with undertheorized moments of death and underutilized opportunities to engage with death, this scholarship is guided by the questions: “What place is given to life, death, and the human body (in particular the wounded or slain body)? How are they inscribed in the order of power?” The overall aim of a necropolitical engagement is to foster a deeper understanding of why/how death continues to disproportionately come into being again and again for specific, targeted peoples.