Neoliberalism assemblages – Education as investment techne: Trying to understand?

The New Zealand Coalition government (2023–present) has adopted recommendations of its newly formed Ministry of Regulation. Early Childhood Education Regulatory Review (2024) is its first task. In attempting a genealogical analysis, I argue that this iteration further shifts ECE from a public good to a market commodity. It is not merely a policy shift but is a profound reconfiguration of how the government conceptualizes childhood, education, and social value. The Review emerges not as an isolated moment, but as the culmination of a decades-long process of economic rationalization that has incrementally dismantled collective approaches to education, both in New Zealand but also other Anglophone countries.