Governmentality and the Arts That Matter: Producing the Conformed, Flexible and Creative Pupil Since the Turn of the 20th Century

This article seeks to describe the historical derivations, continuities and displacements that have led to the widely consensual contemporary narratives, adopted by governmental entities and international policymakers, concerning the benefits of the arts to education and the constitution of personal identity. A history of the present approach is used to unveil the strategic purposes of a biopower, which, at its very origin, had efficiently correlated the promotion and inculcation of artistic values with the normalization of infant and child populations. To this end, we propose an analysis of two historical moments – at the turn of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century – in which aesthetic experiences, practices of the self and governmental rationalities were articulated in order to produce specific kinds of social actors and manage their fates.