Productivism, Vocational and Professional Education, and the Ecological Question

As the major supplier of skilled and certified labour, vocational and professional education (VPE) fuels the engine of economic growth. As such, it is directly implicated in the reproduction of productivism, the globally dominant ethos which presupposes that economic growth and paid work are permanent and necessary features of human existence, regardless of their consequences. This paper proposes that, in an era of eco-social risk, it is necessary to interrogate the truth-claims and normative assumptions that systematically configure VPE and its subjects for productivism. The role of productivism in the historical formation of VPE as an institution, and its constitutive effects on VPE policy and practice, are examined. In light of a critique of the logic and assumptions that underpin contemporary constructions of VPE, it is argued that productivism no longer provides a legitimate or sustainable basis for VPE. By problematizing the universal truths of productivism, it becomes possible to re-imagine VPE for alternative, post-productivist futures.