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Sameer, Ali (2020) the Visible and Invisible Discourses: the Securitization of Pakistan and Its Impact on the Social Construction of Girls’/Women Education

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Sameer, Ali (2020) the Visible and Invisible Discourses: the Securitization of Pakistan and Its Impact on the Social Construction of Girls’/Women Education Sameer, Ali (2020) The visible and invisible discourses: the securitization of Pakistan and its impact on the social construction of girls’/women education. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/81557/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] The Visible and Invisible Discourses: The Securitization of Pakistan and Its Impact on the Social Construction of Girls’/Women Education Ali Sameer MA, MSc Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) School of Education College of Social Sciences University of Glasgow September 2019 Abstract This study examines the securitization of Pakistan and its impact on the social construction of girls’/women education. The research has applied the school of Copenhagen’s securitization model to offer a constructivist analysis of Pakistan’s security struggles. Using the ideas of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler, the study explores the power of both discourse and performativity to examine issues of gender and education in a religiously driven post-colonial-security state. The study adopted a qualitative methodological approach, and twenty-eight elite interviews were conducted with officials from five cohorts: the army, religious scholars, bureaucrats, educationists, and third-sector officials. The rationale in the selection of participants was done keeping in mind the significance of their influence on the issues of security, gender, and education in Pakistan. The findings of the study suggest that the notion of discourse, which is profoundly prevalent and holds credible relevance in educational studies but needs to be extended and adapted to engage with a postcolonial context. Therefore, the thesis argues that it is not only through visible discourses that the discourse of securitization impacts girls’/women education in Pakistan. However, there exist invisible discourses, such as, the discourse of gendered ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘hidden curriculum’, which come together with the visible discourses to constitute exclusionary gendered educational practices in Pakistan. The study also illustrates that power structures contest and negotiate power within the discourse of securitization. This negotiation and contestation generate discourses that influence the inequitable constitution of the ‘girl/woman’ as subject in Pakistan. However, the thesis discerns that in a postcolonial society, such as Pakistan, the creation of subject within discourses is diverse from the creation of Foucauldian subject in European society. Acknowledging, the diversity of discourses and the varied working ways of power among distinct societies and cultures, the research study suggests that within the realm of education, the application of theories of discourse and power have definite strengths but once applied out of their contexts can exhibit limitations as well. Hence, it argues, discourses and power should be studied and explored keeping in mind their social and cultural relevance and differences. ii Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................. ii Table of Contents ................................................................................. iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................... vii Author’s Declaration ............................................................................. viii 1 Chapter: Introduction ........................................................................ 1 Background ............................................................................................ 1 Motivation for this research ....................................................................... 3 Aims and research questions ...................................................................... 4 Significance and Contributions ................................................................... 5 1.4.1 Conceptual Contribution .................................................................................. 5 1.4.2 Significance of the Study .................................................................................. 8 Explanation of key terms ......................................................................... 10 1.5.1 Securitization .............................................................................................. 10 1.5.2 Discourse ................................................................................................... 11 1.5.3 Performativity ............................................................................................. 11 1.5.4 The Postcolonial ........................................................................................... 12 Structure of the thesis ............................................................................ 12 Chapter 2: The Discourse of Securitization ..................................................................... 12 Chapter 3: The Foucauldian Discourse and the Securitization of Pakistan ................................. 13 Chapter 4: Construction of Woman – Theorizing Gender through Poststructuralist Analysis ............. 13 Chapter 5: Educational Discourse and the creation of Subject ............................................... 13 Chapter 6: Research Methodology ................................................................................ 13 Chapter 7: The Discourse of securitization, power contestation and knowledge production ............ 14 Chapter 8: The visible and invisible Discourses: The social construction of women and girls’ education in Pakistan ........................................................................................................... 14 Chapter 9 - Discussion: The securitization discourse, the subject creation, and girls’/women education ........................................................................................................................ 14 Chapter 10: Conclusion ............................................................................................ 15 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 15 2 Chapter: The Discourse of Securitization ............................................... 16 Introduction: ......................................................................................... 16 The theoretical framework of Securitization: ............................................... 16 2.2.1 Security as a social construct ........................................................................... 17 The Securitization of Pakistan: .................................................................. 19 Military and Islam: the two security actors of Pakistan: ................................... 21 2.4.1 Security Actor: The Army ................................................................................ 22 2.4.2 Security Actor: Religious Ideology ...................................................................... 23 The Securitization of Pakistan as a Foucauldian Discourse ............................... 23 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 25 iii 3 Chapter: The Foucauldian Discourse and the Securitization of Pakistan ......... 27 Introduction: ......................................................................................... 27 Power: A contested notion ....................................................................... 27 Foucault’s Analysis of Power: .................................................................... 29 Foucauldian Power: Regime of Practices and Discourses ................................. 32 Case Study of Pakistan: ............................................................................ 34 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 36 4 Chapter: The Construction of ‘Girl/Woman’ – Theorizing Gender through Poststructuralist Analysis ........................................................................ 37 Introduction .......................................................................................... 37 Theorizing Gender and the Poststructuralist Perspective................................. 37 Gender Performativity ............................................................................. 39 Producing the Female Body ...................................................................... 41 The Panopticon Discourse ........................................................................ 42 Foucault, Butler and the feminist discourse ................................................. 44 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 45 5 Chapter: Educational Discourse and the creation of Subject ....................... 47 Introduction .........................................................................................
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