Paper short abstract:

This paper ethnographically explores the lived affective tension of social entrepreneurs of education in Delhi, India, as they attempt to become both consistent selves trustworthy of financial investment, and relational, self-aware persons who practice ethical self-transformation.

Paper long abstract:

India’s Education Reform Movement NGOs aim to improve education of marginalised children by teaching them to self-reflect, discover their ‘true’ selves, and develop leadership ‘skills’ needed to ‘actualise’ this self in the world. In the logic of the Movement, it is the individual who has the power to change their social and economic reality by developing the self-discipline and self-confidence to do so. But before the children are taught this self-focused route to self-actualisation, the middle-class providers of this education must themselves be trained.

Educators joining one of India’s largest education NGOs complete a five-week residential program where they locate their ‘inner light’ through self-reflection and use it to compound their commitment for ‘ending education inequity’. After a two-year teaching fellowship with this parent NGO, fellows are encouraged to set-up their own ‘social enterprises’ which seemingly allow them to perform ethical selfhood par excellence: by becoming social entrepreneurs they both do good (increase education parity) and do good quickly (through the ‘start-up’ logic of speed).

This paper presents an intimate ethnographic analysis of a Delhi-based NGO founder as he inhabits the tension of becoming a successful entrepreneur (growing his organisation, gaining funding) and a ‘social’ activist (performing ethicality, showing self-awareness). The paper explores how a neoliberal demand to present a consistent and trustworthy self (towards funders and others) relates to the founders’ commitment to a socially committed and relational self. It will discuss the affective tensions this duality raises and how it influences Delhi’s educational entrepreneurs’ journey in ethical self-transformation.