In this book, Baez examines a series of governmental "technologies" that he believes strongly characterize our present. The technologies that he addresses in this book are information, statistics, databases, economy, and accountability. He offers arguments about the role these technologies play in contemporary politics. Specifically, Baez analyses these technologies in terms of (the sometimes oppositional) rationalities for rendering reality thinkable, and, consequently, governable. These technologies bear on the field of education, but also exceed it. So, while issues in education frame many of the arguments in this book, the book's also has usefulness to those outside of field of education. Specifically, Baez concludes that the governmental technologies listed above all are co-opted by neoliberal rationalities rendering our lives thinkable and governable through an array of devices for the management of risk, using the model of the economy, and heavily investing in the uses of information, statistics, databases, and oversight mechanisms associated with accountability. Baez leaves readers with more questions than they might have had prior to reading the book, so that they may re-imagine their own present and future and thus their own forms of self-government.

Contents:
1. Race and Law in the Academy: Hate Speech, Tenure and Affirmative Action 2. Discourse, Ideology and Power: Discursive Practices in Academy and Law 3. Hate Speech and the Power of Words 4. Tenure and 'Intentions' 5. The Stories We Tell: Law, Race and Affirmative Action 6. Race and the Politics of the Axiomatic

Governments across the globe are struggling to deal with the socially deplorable issues of racism and ethnic hatred. No more apparent is this struggle in the US where educational institutions find themselves at the forefront of legal and social practices to combat racism.
This book studies the 'race-based' legal cases and literature surrounding three seemingly different practices in US academic institutions: affirmative action in college administrations, hate speech codes (developed to prevent racist insitement in colleges), and tenure of faculty of colour. These processes implicate a spectrum of behaviour that accounts for what is commonly believed to be race, the explicit use of race in hate speech, the implicit use of race in tenure discrimination and the benign use of race to remedy the injustices of the past with affirmative action.
Rather than engage in conventional legal interpretation, Baez treats these cases as 'narratives', that is, as cultural texts that tell significant stories about the social world. Highlighting potential assumptions and contradictions in these cases, Baez sheds doubt on the role of the courts and academic institutions in progressive race-projects and suggests that framing these issues within legal terms forecloses a critical response to them.

In this book, Baez examines a series of governmental "technologies" that he believes strongly characterize our present. The technologies that he addresses in this book are information, statistics, databases, economy, and accountability. He offers arguments about the role these technologies play in contemporary politics. Specifically, Baez analyses these technologies in terms of (the sometimes oppositional) rationalities for rendering reality thinkable, and, consequently, governable. These technologies bear on the field of education, but also exceed it. So, while issues in education frame many of the arguments in this book, the book's also has usefulness to those outside of field of education. Specifically, Baez concludes that the governmental technologies listed above all are co-opted by neoliberal rationalities rendering our lives thinkable and governable through an array of devices for the management of risk, using the model of the economy, and heavily investing in the uses of information, statistics, databases, and oversight mechanisms associated with accountability. Baez leaves readers with more questions than they might have had prior to reading the book, so that they may re-imagine their own present and future and thus their own forms of self-government.