Danilo Taglietti – Short presentation and paper proposal outline

institutional affiliation
I’m a second year Ph.D. in Social and Statistical Sciences at the University of Naples – Federico II.

training background
After higher studies in marketing and communication and a long lasting experience (10 years) as public and private organizations consultant, I had a bachelor degree in Public Management at University of Milan, with a theoretical work in Public Policy. Then, I moved to a more problematized approach to public policies, with a master’s degree in Social and Territorial Policies at University of Naples – Federico II. My final thesis, here, was a first elaboration of a Foucauldian “archeological tool” for the analysis of policy text, then empirically tested on the last Italian Education Reform policy, the so-called “La Buona Scuola”.
I’m also certified in Project Cycle Management at ISPI – Milan and a I’m still involved in managerial consultancy activities.

main themes of investigation
In my Ph.D., I’m trying to synthesize my training interests, focusing on public policies in the educational sector, from a sociological perspective.
My doctoral research is an exercise in policy sociology, relating to the making digital of educational leaders: in a Foucauldian framework, I’m exploring the subjectivations of head-teachers as an effect of several, disconnected and partially overlapping policies which aim to digitalize school organizations. How are digital technologies changing the organizational practices of head-teachers (first order effects)? How are these new practices changing the ends of education (second order effects)? Methodologically, I’m trying to pursue my knowledge objectives building up an unconventional field research toolbox, made of: reading, with archaeological tools and textual analysis techniques; observation, with multi-sited and multi-reality (both physical and virtual realities) ethnography; and interrogation, with focused interviews.
More generally, my research interests are about: the debate between modern and post-modern approaches in social sciences, with their ontological and epistemological differences; the re-elaboration of the “Foucauldian machinery” in a useful framework for sociological analysis of educational policies; the changes of educational “topoi”, ends and subjectivations in the current neo-liberal age.

a paper intended to write
I’m very interested in writing a paper about the “dispositif of innovation” in the European educational space. Starting from a first theoretical elaboration of some empirical materials collected for my doctoral research, I argue that digitalization is not a stand up alone process: it is imbricated, interconnected, fabricated by and fabricating a wider frame of innovation. With this step up, I think we should be able to reconsider many educational processes, such as: datafication, digitalization, commodification, entrepreneuralization, managerialization and eterotopization. The most part of the literature studies this processes as concomitant, but distinct or loosely coupled. Instead, it seems to me that, when we focus on school practices more than on policy texts, we can notice the entanglement among all these strands, in the name of a – presumptively necessary – innovation. The exploration of this argument could be declined in many research questions, such as: how the above mentioned processes are discursively connected with the concept of innovation? through which key policy actors innovation move to education policy processes? which material conditions, external pressures and money flows enable or support innovation policies in education? and many more. In my opinion, a good and reachable research aim would be the reconstruction of the discursive strategy that holds together, articulates and promotes the specific educational policy processes of datafication, digitalization, commodification, entrepreneuralization, managerialization and eterotopization.

the starting knowledge-base (empirical materials, theory, methodology, etc.)
What I can share is: a) my engagement with the theoretical re-elaboration of the Foucauldian archeological machinery for the analysis of discourses and of the concept of dispositif; b) my doctoral research field materials.

the knowledge needed to complete the paper.
What I’m looking for is a charming team with a better knowledge about: a) European Union policy documents, b) policy processes and c) key policy actors, within which to explore the grounding of these hypothesis and test it on the field.