Entertaining doubts: on frivolity as resistance

Abstract

I want to play with the notion of frivolity as resistance, and its possible contribution to the doing of education and educational research. Frivolity is a project, or at least a posture, with a long history in literature, art and cultural politics, and this paper argues for continuing that dishonourable tradition. In particular, I will propose frivolity as a way of discomposing the language of policy and thereby of unsettling its totalising ambitions. Sadly, the paper isn’t itself very frivolous. In arguing the case for frivolity rather than performing it, I have failed to free myself from the sober conventions of academic writing-as-usual. 1

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