My analysis develops via the following five conceptual steps. The "first step" links up with Foucault's analysis of techniques of "soft" discipline, which relates to "classical" reform pedagogy, in the transition period from the 19th to the 20th century. The "second step" thematises the shifts in these disciplinary techniques in the context of the crisis of the so-called "environments of enclosure." Here there is a particular focus on Deleuze's arguments concerning the emergence of a modern "society of control." The "third step" considers the specific form of the "government of the social," which Foucault approaches with the concept of "governmentality." The "fourth step" aims to show that the current educational reforms can be understood as a "governmental strategy." The "fifth step," finally, thematises the inconsistency of governmental practices. It pursues the possibility that such practices advance, "en passant" or contrary to their aims, their own contradiction: the preparedness and capacity for critical opposition.