Abstract:
This thesis presents a frame analysis of how New Zealand universities secure students as neoliberal subjects. In so doing the thesis seeks to concretize the theoretical insights of Erving Goffman through a case study of student experience at the University of Auckland. Three key experiences or ordered functions are addressed: student loans, Orientation Week and the Student Services Levy Consultation survey. These routine experiences are analyzed in terms of primary frame, strip, keying, anchoring devices, flooding in, and fabrication. These concepts are also used to illuminate the richness of Goffman’s foundational theorizing around frame analysis. The case study is achieved through an auto-ethnographic account and policy analysis. The thesis is primarily structured around three key experiences. Chapter 1 introduces theory, method and central traits of neoliberalism and the neoliberal subject. Chapter 2 provides a policy analysis of the Tertiary Education Strategy. Chapter 3 explores the student experience of student loans, especially the keying of debt as a strip of activity. Chapter 4 examines Orientation Week and interlaces the concepts of anchoring devices and flooding in. Chapter 5 continues the interlaced analysis and further incorporates the concept of fabrication. Chapter 6 provides an assessment of the research and conclusion.
