Power and built environment course delivery: a modern solution to force majeure
Osei-Nimo, Samuel and Millman, Cindy and Aboagye-Nimo, Emmanuel (2023) Power and built environment course delivery: a modern solution to force majeure. In: Beyond the pandemic pedagogy of managerialism: exploring the limits of online teaching and learning. Palgrave Macmillan Cham, UK, pp. 143-159. ISBN 9783031401930
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While the pandemic has seen dramatic changes to higher education delivery and strategy in the past few years, there appears to be a certain continuity in the functioning of power relations in pedagogy. It is argued that teaching and learning online, which was accelerated by the pandemic, transformed not only how education was organised and delivered, and raised expectations about increased transparency, accountability, service orientation, and civic participation but also exacerbated associated fears concerning surveillance and control, privacy issues, power relations, and inequalities. Consequently, Michel Foucault’s critical studies concerning regimes of power are of particular interest when applied to teaching and learning in creative sectors such as Built Environment and Construction in Higher Education Institution (HEI) settings. Teaching Built Environment and Construction courses online has always been seen as pivotal but faced some challenges during the shift to online teaching across HEIs in the UK. It has long been argued that the development of construction professionals requires utilising digital technologies, which can be achieved by working remotely. Equally, there is a vital need to be present and witness the physical development of products and operations in the form of structures. This chapter utilises Foucault’s conception of power relations and governmentality to explore how micro-level techniques of power, such as surveillance, manifested during the pandemic, particularly in the Built Environment and Construction in HEI settings, and created resistance, advocacy, and regulation among the key stakeholders, particularly academics. In this context, we look at Foucault's notions of governmentality and control and how they might be used to critically view managerialism as a manifestation or practice of surveillance. Subsequently, the chapter argues that the new ‘managerialism’ that emerged during the pandemic acts as an emergent and increasingly rationalised and complicated power and control technology that operates at various levels on the individual, both educator and learner, and the broader institution.
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