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This paper sets out the theoretical and methodological approach of a study of the politics of persuasion and the mobilisation of interest in relation to the Trust schools initiative in England. Drawing on the discourse theoretical approach of Laclau and Mouffe the paper argues that the politics of consensus associated with New Labour reconfigures the field of politics, closing down legitimate democratic space. Building on this approach and that of policy sociology the paper outlines how the researchers seeks to address the following questions – if the space for legitimate democratic debate is so severely constrained then how does a social democratic government deal with the kind of opposition that Labour faced in relation to Trust schools? How do governments persuade dissident citizens to support unpopular policies? How are citizens mobilised to support such policies? This also raises questions about how, in such a restricted political space, do those questioning or resisting such policies, engage in the politics of persuasion and the mobilisation of interests? The reconfiguration of the field of politics and what this means for the constitution of legitimate democratic debate is the object of study of the research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dargan L. Participation and local urban regeneration: the case of the New Deal for Communities (NDC) in the UK, Regional Studies. The contention of this paper is that the policy discourses of 'community' and of 'participation' underpinning area-based regeneration programmes are overly simplistic, and their use in regeneration policy is, as a consequence, highly problematic. Based on an analysis of a regeneration partnership in the north of England, this paper will demonstrate that, while partnership members share the same levels of access in decision-making structures, the members of partnership boards have such different understandings of the purpose of participation and the role of residents in the regeneration process that it has created conflict serious enough to affect delivery of regeneration. [image omitted] Dargan L. La participation et la restauration urbaine locale: l'etude de cas du New Deal en faveur des communautes au R-U, Regional Studies. Cet article cherche a affirmer que les discours politiques sur les notions de 'communaute' et de 'participation' qui etayent les programmes de restauration territoriaux sont trop simplistes et, par consequent, leur emploi dans la politique de restauration s'avere tres problematique. A partir d'une analyse d'un partenariat de restauration dans le nord de l'Angleterre, cet article cherche a demontrer que, tandis que les membres du partenariat jouissent des memes niveaux d'acces aux structures dans la prise de decision, la comprehension des membres des commissions partenariales quant au but de la participation et au role des habitants dans le processus de restauration varie tellement qu'il en a resulte un conflit suffisamment important que la restauration s'avere touchee. New Labour New Deal for Communities (NDC) Restauration Participation Communaute Discours Dargan L. Beteiligung und lokale Stadtsanierung: der Fall des 'New Deal for Communities (NDC)'-Programms in Grossbritannien, Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag wird die These aufgestellt, dass die von der Politik im Zusammenhang mit Gebietssanierungsprogrammen eingesetzten Diskurse der 'Gemeinschaft' und 'Beteiligung' ubermassig simplistisch sind, weshalb ihre Verwendung in der Sanierungspolitik ausserst problematisch ist. Ausgehend von der Analyse einer Sanierungspartnerschaft in Nordengland wird in diesem Artikel nachgewiesen, dass die einzelnen Partner zwar einen gleichberechtigten Zugang zu den Entscheidungsstrukturen haben, doch dass die Mitglieder in den Vorstanden der Partnerschaft derart unterschiedliche Auffassungen uber den Zweck der Beteiligung und die Rolle der Anwohner im Sanierungprozess haben, dass ernste Konflikte entstanden sind, die sich auf die Umsetzung der Sanierung auswirken. New Labour New Deal for Communities (NDC) Sanierung Beteiligung Gemeinschaft Diskurs Dargan L. Participacion y regeneracion urbana local: El caso del New Deal for Communities (NDC) en el Reino Unido, Regional Studies. En este articulo explicamos que los discursos politicos de 'comunidad' y de 'participacion' que socavan los programas de regeneracion de areas son demasiados simplistas y por consiguiente es muy problematico que se usen para la politica de regeneracion. Basandonos en un analisis de una colaboracion de regeneracion en el norte de Inglaterra, en este articulo demostraremos que, si bien los miembros de sociedades comparten los mismos niveles de acceso en las estructuras de toma de decisiones, los miembros de las juntas directivas en sociedad tienen opiniones diferentes en cuanto a la finalidad de la participacion y el papel de los residentes en el proceso de regeneracion, lo que ha creado conflictos lo suficientemente graves como para afectar a la realizacion de la regeneracion. Partido Laborista New Deal for Communities (NDC) Regeneracion Participacion Comunidad Discurso [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to unpack the term "regeneration", using a discourse analysis approach to examine the ways in which local actors involved in a New Deal for Communities partnership in Newcastle upon Tyne formulate their understandings of regeneration. The paper finds that "regeneration" is a term that has been taken up and used by local actors who have not considered its meaning in any substantive depth, and argues that this is the result of both the powerful policy discourse surrounding regeneration, and the lack of dialogue locally about the nature of the problems to be addressed. The paper concludes by arguing for regeneration partnerships to be given the time and support to discuss local issues in order to facilitate partnership working and develop an appropriate agenda for regeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current policies on neighbourhood renewal in England are unrecognisable from those that were in place ten years ago. In this paper, I argue that this is not because Labour's policies failed. Indeed there is a clear picture both of absolute improvement in the poorest neighbourhoods and closing gaps with other neighbourhoods, although large gaps still remained. However, despite this, Labour changed its mind over neighbourhood renewal, losing sight of what this policy regime was for, as distinct from policies on economic regeneration. The Coalition has, in important respects, picked up the baton laid down by Gordon Brown, although not the one carried by Tony Blair. Those who would like to see a return to some of the aspects of neighbourhood renewal policy pursued in the early 2000s need, therefore, to revisit fundamental arguments about policy purposes, as well as the mechanisms by which policies are pursued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different versions of choice are at work in England's National Health Service. A hard version of choice associated with provider competition (and patient exit) appears to be giving way to a 'softer' concept of 'personalization', emphasizing choice and voice at the micro level, but also drawing on solidaristic themes. As personalization becomes increasingly central to health reform, it is important to interpret the ways in which a personalization narrative is being used. It is also necessary to trace its ambivalent framing of National Health Service patients, staff and structures. This paper uses textual analysis to explore how personalization has been positioned in ministerial speeches and health policy documents. It finds that personalization is located in a discourse of organizational decline and disruption, emphasizing the need for patient exit and voice as recuperative mechanisms, but also one of consolidation, trust and equity, emphasizing loyalty to shared welfare services. Hirschman makes clear that an interplay between exit, voice and loyalty is to be expected. However, there is an ambivalence in their relationship which is being ignored by health policy-makers. Frontline staff and service users are left to negotiate an agenda which positions them as both partners and adversaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 15 years, initial teacher education in England has been established as a national system, closely controlled by the government. One of the consequences of this move is that teacher education is now intimately bound up with changing national politics and policy priorities which reach down into the finest of detail of provision. In this paper, we focus on the way in which politics and policy have impacted on one of the defining features of teacher education provision in England - that of 'partnership'. In particular we examine the way in which the concept and practice of partnership has been transformed in line with New Labour's 'Third Way' politics. In order to do this, we reflect on our recent evaluation of the National Partnership Project, an initiative established by the Training and Development Agency for Schools to increase the quality and quantity of schools' involvement in initial teacher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High profile commitments to stemming homelessness have been integral to New Labour's emphasis on promoting social inclusion since 1997. During this period official policy has favoured an increasingly assertive approach in this area as exemplified by the successful post-1998 programmes to reduce street homelessness. The period since 2002 has seen a broader ministerial drive to reduce homelessness, mainly through encouraging local authorities (LAs) to adopt more pro-active, preventative approaches to the problem. Aided by substantial central funding LAs have responded by developing numerous initiatives to this end. Particularly where they involve assisting people at risk of homelessness to access private tenancies, such schemes are often justified by LAs as empowering consumers and promoting choice. With official homelessness figures in England having fallen dramatically since 2003/04, it would appear that the new 'homelessness prevention regime' has made a marked impact. However, what such figures do not reveal is the extent to which this results from the adoption of more restrictive interpretations of LA duties under the homelessness legislation. This could mean that the problem is being re-defined rather than resolved. Drawing on a recently completed study, this paper explores the tensions between helping resolve people's housing problems, on the one hand, and upholding legal rights to accommodation, on the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Twenty-five years ago, social housing accounted for almost one-third of England's entire housing stock. Since then, mainly because the sales to sitting tenants and demolitions have exceeded new construction, the sector has contracted substantially. However, at the same time, and particularly in the period since 1989, the sector has been undergoing far-reaching restructuring. This paper charts this process focusing, in particular, on developments under the Blair administrations since 1997. The paper discusses the external pressures experienced by social landlords over this period. Such pressures are differentiated between those emanating from central government policy initiatives on the one hand, and from changing housing market conditions on the other. The paper then goes on to analyse the evolving structure of the sector post-1997, the processes that have contributed to this, and the impacts that have resulted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comparative critique of key education and teacher education policies in England adopted by New Labour (1997–2010) and the Coalition government (2010–2015). It focuses on direct measures intended to alleviate the effects of poverty on young people’s educational outcomes, and on teacher education policies with implications for preparing teachers to tackle such problems. It questions the consistency, coherence and effectiveness of the policies pursued by each administration and analyses the similarities and differences between them. Particular attention is paid to the conceptions of professional knowledge and educational research that underpin their assumptions about the role of teachers’ professional learning in seeking to break the link between young people’s socio-economic status and their educational outcomes. While policies implemented by both administrations are deeply imbued with neoliberal perspectives, our analysis highlights important differences, the effects of which may become more apparent as the Conservatives exercise their independent authority over education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on Derrida this paper considers how inclusive education in England was defined and operationalised within New Labour's educational policy and by those teachers who reconstructed this policy within the confines of schools and individual classrooms. The paper has two critical ambitions. First it argues that the epistemology of inclusion was mediated by ontological ghosts which moved it away from its creation as a construct of social justice to recreate it on a stage of the phenomenological reduction of competing policy initiatives. Second, the paper demonstrates how teachers although fully accepting of inclusion's theoretic nevertheless interpreted it in such a way that it became nothing more than spectacle where social presence cloaked educational absences. Based upon such findings the paper concludes that New Labour's inclusion policy was illusionary and perhaps was as much about presenting inequity as it was equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors focus on the investment into school leadership in England during the New Labour governments from 1997, and through this they make a contribution to an ongoing scholarly conversation about leadership development. They are concerned to both understand and explain leadership as a policy intervention into the professional practice and identities of the school workforce. They argue that one of the dominant genres of contemporary media - the makeover - has become part of the policy-making “game”. The paper uses the metaphor of makeover to critically examine the current approach to leadership development and to examine the policy game at play in English education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the extent to which political devolution has influenced the nature of education policy-making in Scotland, taking initial teacher education and early professional development as a case. Pre-devolution studies of the policy community in Scotland stressed the close relationships between the various stakeholders and the inherent conservatism that sometimes appeared to ensue from this. It might be anticipated that the removal of formal responsibility for education from the UK government in London to the Scottish Executive in Edinburgh might have unsettled such 'cosiness' and also that the influence of New Labour approaches may be less prevalent in Scotland than in England. The processes of change in Scotland appear to have been less radical and at a slower pace than in England; however, they have been achieved through a more consensual process and so in the long term are likely to be more embedded than those in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new Labour government that entered office in 1997 made early childhood education and care (ECEC) a policy priority, after decades of neglect. The article provides an overview of the subsequent policy developments, looking at three areas in more detail: governance and finance; the organisation and management of services; and the workforce. It then brings the story up to the present day, with policy developments since the 2010 election, during a period of severe public austerity. The article concludes by providing a critical assessment of these developments. From all the attention and activity that has surrounded ECEC in England in recent years, what actually has been achieved? Has it been a case of evolution or transformation? Overall, the article concludes that the period since 1997, despite some important gains, has overall been a story of missed opportunities, a case of more of the same rather than transformative change. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The concept of risk has found increasing prominence in social policy, human services management and front-line practice in recent years. This is particularly the case in relation to children and young people, who, in the UK, have been subject to a range of interventions based on the identification of population-based risk factors. Through the analysis of UK publications (primarily covering England) relating to children and young people during the Labour Government (1997–2010), this article identifies how risk has proliferated across a wide range of youth-related fields, becoming a social, political and moral entity in itself rather than a tool for primarily criminological prediction and intervention. The article concludes that this proliferation demands further empirical study and theoretical scrutiny beyond the criminal justice sphere in which it is often contained and also questions the extent to which the construction of youth both ‘at-risk’ and ‘as-risk’ is a useful and effective way of driving policy and practice interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We report on a major Economic and Social Science Research Council funded study: the Knowledge production in educational leadership Project (RES-000-23-1192), with a particular focus on the relationship between the state, public policy and knowledge. The project focused on the first 10 years of New Labour education policy-making, with a particular emphasis on investment in school leadership as a means of delivering radical reforms. The specific aims of the enquiry have been to examine knowledge production: the types of knowledge used in policy-making, the methodologies and claims to the truth being made, and the people involved in developing policy as politicians, advisors, consultants and researchers. We have explained the policy-making process by using theoretical tools from political science (regime theory) and Bourdieu's theory of practice (field and habitus) to develop a conceptual framework that we call regimes of practice. The article presents these regimes and examines their impact on how and why knowledge is used in policy-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines New Labour's approach to joined-up government within UK urban policy. In particular, it analyses the government's success in achieving greater degrees of integration in urban governance. It suggests that the growth in the number of multi-sectoral partnership schemes and area-based urban policies under Labour produced tensions with key elements of its joined-up government agenda. The article examines the rationale underpinning the government's approach to 'joined-up governance' and explores the processes by which the government sought to encourage the reorganization of urban governance through the institutional development of strategic and single-purpose partnership bodies. It also highlights the effects of these processes on the ground through an examination of developments in the city of Sheffield. It explores changes in the structure of urban governance in the city in response to national restructuring and local agendas, highlighting the importance of local leadership in providing coherence to urban governance and indicates some democratic tensions that have arisen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses the period following the 1988 Education Reform Act (ERA) and reflects on the main continuities and discontinuities in policy emphases since that Act. It begins by outlining education policy under the Conservatives from 1979. In this, it shows how the Conservative's simultaneous pursuit of marketization and centralization in education, nowhere more so than through the ERA, provides a key illustration of Neave's (1988) 'evaluative state'. In then considering the record of New Labour on education, the article identifies three central strands of policy: first, targeted attempts to tackle disadvantage and, second, an emphasis on school improvement, both of which focus on schools themselves rather than the context in which they operate, and, third, the notion that school diversity and parental choice will lead to higher standards for all. This discussion is used to show the significant continuities between Conservative and New Labour policies in terms of the drive for an essentially market-based education system. In discussing the tensions that have arisen through New Labour's attempts to address disadvantage within a market-based policy framework, the article closes by commenting on the extent to which a new direction in education policy is emerging under Gordon Brown's premiership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bradbury and Williams begin by examining aspects of the genealogy of incidents of fan racism at the Spain v. England international football match in Madrid on 17 November 2004, and the public outcry in Britain that followed. They raise questions about the possible ‘strategic mobilization’ by Spanish fans of apparently racist epithets as a response to the use, by the English football authorities before the match, of prominent anti-racism symbolism. The main body of the article then considers the British public response to Madrid within the context of the Blairite New Labour policy on football racism in England from the late 1990s. It argues that Labour's Football Task Force from 1997 constituted an entirely new direction for sport and government policy in Britain. However, by drawing on the comments of some of the key figures involved, Bradbury and Williams further contend that, both structurally and ideologically, the Task Force was preset to limit its own investigations on the nature and effects of racism, specifically in the English game. Although the Task Force's report, Eliminating Racism in Football , has had some positive effects—for example, on Football Association policy or in stimulating local anti-racist initiatives—its narrow focus and its relatively underdeveloped understanding of the racism problem in professional sport led its members to de-emphasize the significance of forms of institutionalized racism within English football. Research and commentaries on racism in the English game since that report was published in 1998 suggest that problems of racialized exclusion in football remain. Bradbury and Williams conclude that the public outrage in Britain about the incidents in Madrid reflect an over-concentration on silencing public expressions of racism—combating overt, collective fan outbreaks—at the expense of addressing the racialized structures of power that continue to shape access, opportunities and acceptance of ethnic minorities within professional football in England. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]