Domopolitics and the university: the affective entanglement of new nationalist and neoliberal discourses in French higher education

This article examines the interaction between neoliberal and new nationalist discourses in contemporary French higher education. Since the early 2000s, radical right and nationalist ideals have gained increasing success across Europe. Over time, they permeated mainstream politics and began to affect higher education, interacting with the long-running ‘neoliberalization’ of the sector. Based on qualitative interviews and document analysis conducted between 2022 and 2023, this article demonstrates how new nationalist and neoliberal discourses act as mutually reinforcing drivers of a ‘domestication’ process through which higher education is shaped to serve the interests and morals of the nation-state. This process unfolds as state rule takes the form of ‘domopolitics’–or the government of the state as a home. Such a theoretical and analytical framework allows the affective dimension to emerge as a key element of the successful, albeit seemingly unlikely, alliance between neoliberalism and new nationalism in higher education policy.