ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a description of neoliberalism and shows how recent turns in educational discourse, especially that of lifelong learning, is aligned with neoliberalism. It shows that the allure of brain images gives popular neuroscience an easy if overextended scientific authority. The chapter presents the emerging discipline of critical neuroscience to uncover the way that neuro-sciences scientific authority can be used to more effectively push forward a neoliberal agenda, also within education. Using Victoria Pitts-Taylors conception of the neuronal self, it argues that neuroscience can give neoliberalism increased power through what Foucault calls governmentality. This enhances the already existing responsibility of the learner to continually care for the self and be on the ready for learning the new labor skills required by the market economy. The alignment of the authority and popularity of neuroscience with neoliberalism gives its application to education easy scientific cover for neoliberalism's economic political agenda of social inequality.
