New Labour: governmentality, social exclusion and education policy

Doherty, Robert Anthony (2011) New Labour: governmentality, social exclusion and education policy. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis critically explores the broad relationship between New Labour’s adoption of social exclusion as a policy concept and the outworking of this commitment within instances of policy directed at compulsory education. It presents and deploys Foucault’s idea of governmentality as a perspective from which to undertake critical policy analysis. It considers approaches to policy analysis and posits a layered model that looks to explicate levels and forms of power within the policy system; including a concern to integrate the place and function of policy texts. An account of the main dimensions of New Labour’s Third Way politics is developed, together with a broad account of New Labour’s attempts to govern compulsory education. Critical Discourse Analysis is applied to interpret and explain two texts posited as capturing a particular historical moment in New Labour’s adoption and commitment to a recognisable conceptualisation of social exclusion. A governmentality perspective is employed to analyse policy around social exclusion within the Third Way politics of New Labour following 1997. This analysis has a particular focus on how this social exclusion dimension was accommodated within the broader schematic of Third Way governmentality and how it interacted with and emerged within policy around compulsory education in the early years of New Labour. The analysis concludes that the social exclusion dimension of New Labour’s policy ambitions was present, but sublimated within the conflicted policy climate of compulsory education arising from New Labour’s distinctive governmentality.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Keywords: Governmentality, New Labour, Education Policy, Social Exclusion, Policy Analysis
• Subjects: L Education > L Education (General); J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) > JN101 Great Britain
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Education
• Supervisor's Name: Forde, Professor Christine
• Date of Award: 2011
• Depositing User: Robert A. Doherty
• Unique ID: glathesis:2011-2667
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 06 Jun 2011
• Last Modified: 10 Dec 2012 13:58
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/2667