ABSTRACT
Foucauldian governmentality functions through discourse as social action, hence the importance of the discursive conditions that encourage or discourage the inculcation of neoliberal subjectivity and the situation of those being inculcated. The corporate world has long promoted “communication skills” training, especially for “team and leadership” relations, to inculcate neoliberal governmentality in employees. Such training then moved into US higher education, oriented toward “transformational leadership” that would “bring change”. This became an industry of college and university paracurricular programs, along with the Posse Foundation and Ashoka U, all presenting communication, team, and leadership skills to US liberal arts undergraduate students as centrally important for their future. Yet the results are at best uneven: students do the requisite workshops, mentoring sessions, and conferences without necessarily identifying as agents of neoliberal values, or even using the leadership discourse. Why do they not internalize the neoliberal message and why do higher education institutions and partner organizations present them as though they have?
