Worry about professional education: Emotions and affect in the context of neoliberal change in postsecondary education

A growing literature deals with the role of emotions and affect in making sense of how neoliberal changes in governance are experienced. In our study of the effects of neoliberal changes within Canadian universities, we discovered that faculty members are experiencing emotional as well as cognitive responses, to these changes. This paper aims to contribute to the understanding of how neoliberalism is embodied in emotion, shaping the spaces in which we are located. The ways in which neoliberal ideology reorganizes workplaces results in people experiencing a range of affects that are then displayed in the form of emotions. We consider how space shapes affect and, in turn, emotional responses to neoliberal change. These emotions generate meaning and work as a form of power that aligns bodies with, and separates them from, others (Ahmed, 2004a).