Neoliberalism, Pedagogy and Human Development

"In this ambitious and provocative book, Michalis Kontopodis explores how temporal dimensions of development are enacted through culturally mediated social practices, highlighting the links between memory, imagination and collaboration. By drawing on everyday lives of marginalized students variously positioned within their unique cultures yet subjected to the abiding power of neoliberal educational regimes, this approach breaks with the tradition that assumes a position of a neutral observer. In its activist critical stance that interrogates political contexts of human development, the book exemplifies a novel and much needed trend in socio-cultural studies that itself helps to enact new possibilities for the future." - Anna Stetsenko, City University of New York, Co-editor of Voices within Vygotsky's Non-classical Psychology: Past, Present, Future (Nova Science, 2002).

"Excellent book which moves brilliantly from the analysis of local schools and concrete student cases to a timely discussion of global educational politics and dynamics". - Christoph Wulf, Free University Berlin, Author of Educational Anthropology (LIT) and Educational Science: Hermeneutics, Empirical Research, Critical Theory (Waxmann), Editor of Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft

"Trained both in educational psychology and in anthropology, the author provides fantastic information about German, US and Brazilian educational projects while exploring students' personal dramas and developmental trajectories. The analysis sheds new light on existing Vygotskian scholarship and interpretation and opens new paths in the education of urban and rural marginalized populations." - Erineu Foerste, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil, Author of Parceria na Formação de Professores (CORTEZ, 2005) and Co-editor of Projeto Político-Pedagógico da Educação do Campo (PRONERA, 2008).