Vividly written, richly theorized and uncomfortably familiar, this timely book documents the rise of the attention economy and the bio-political capture of children and young people by screen-use technologies. Precise in its cultural diagnosis and ideology critique, this is a must read for anyone interested in the ‘education drugs attention complex’ and the critical role of social philosophy to combating the worst excesses of this movement.

Andrew W. Wilkins, Reader in Education, Goldsmiths, University of London

With this book, Keneth J. Saltman argues that drugs are at the center of the most significant transformations of schooling. Children are increasingly being drugged to compete on standardized tests, to increase their attention levels in school, and are being diagnosed with ADHD at exponentially increasing rates. Saltman describes the material stakes in what he calls the education drugs attention complex, namely: educational profiteering through the mutually supportive sales of drugs and testing products; drugs and digital screen technologies; drugs and trauma/resilience programs; and drugs and the school to prison pipeline. He shows how each of these examples are part of a vast interlocking drug and attention industry in which pharma and tech companies are commercializing and producing youth problems for profit and are targeting the most vulnerable young people. The book covers the prevalence of screen addiction, the misuse of hormone therapies for transgenders youth, anxiety and trauma medication, the connection between race and drugs, and in the final chapter offers critical, democratic, and practical solutions for educators and policy makers to tackle these issues.
Les mer
Reveals the interconnected nature of the education drugs attention complex in which drug and tech companies profit from and exploit vulnerable children.

Introduction: The Drug Attention Industrial Complex
1. Smart Drugs: The Educational Trade in Attention
2. Screen Addicts
3. Raging Hormones: Transgender Youth and the Ideology of Competition
4. Trauma Doping: Anti-Anxiety Medication and the New Trauma Education Industries
5. Race, Drugs, and the School to Prison Pipeline
6. Enchanting Education for Democratic Affect or Getting Kids Hooked on Theory
Conclusion
References
Index

Les mer
Reveals the interconnected nature of the education drugs attention complex in which drug and tech companies profit from and exploit vulnerable children.
Warns of the increasing use of drugs and medication being used by children to compete on standardized tests and increase attention levels in schools
This series is dedicated to the critical theoretical analysis of the relationship between education, society, and technology. Books in the series recognize that technology is deeply intertwined with power and the production of subjectivity and consciousness and recognize that technology harbors authoritarian as well as democratic applications. The books will navigate these issues in different ways through analysis of emergent technologies, the historical and conceptual formation of technology in education, and the social, political, and ideological aspects of technology in relation to educational questions, concerns, and problems. Books in the series cover global cultural, political, economic, aesthetic, ecological, and educational transformations, trends, agendas, and conflicts.
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350440005
Publisert
2025-08-21
Utgiver
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Vekt
320 gr
Høyde
220 mm
Bredde
140 mm
Dybde
14 mm
Aldersnivå
U, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
152

Biografisk notat

Kenneth J. Saltman is Professor of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, USA. He is the author of The Swindle of Innovative Educational Finance (2018) and The Politics of Education, 2nd edition (2018) and The Disaster of Resilience (Bloomsbury, 2023). He is a fellow of the National Educational Policy Center and a Fulbright Chair in Globalization and Culture.