Affective philanthropy and the im/possibility of governance: the LEGO Foundation’s involvement in public education

This article explores the LEGO Foundation’s efforts to promote playful learning in Danish public education. Drawing on theories of affective power, we examine how the Playful Learning program secures influence by positioning itself as an alternative to dominant discourses of impact, measurement, and learning outcomes in education governance. The article builds on an analysis of materials published or funded by the LEGO Foundation around the Playful Learning program as well as interviews with program representatives. Lodged in a philanthropic strategy based on invoking promises of community building, excitement, and riskiness, we argue that the program represents a paradigmatic case of what we term affective philanthropy. Rather than support established policy goals or networked governance, the affective philanthropy of the LEGO Foundation asserts power by mobilizing a vague desire for less control and more play. After showing how this logic plays out in the foundation’s materials in relation to three conventional frameworks of governance – policy, accountability, and knowledge – the article concludes by discussing the democratic implications of entwining public education with philanthro-capitalist arrangements of intensity and excitement.