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This introduction to the symposium sets out the context for local government in the United Kingdom at the current time. It outlines the scale of the reductions in funding since 2010, showing how uneven these cuts have been across the country and the reasons for this. It also describes the increased exposure to risk of both local government and of the citizens and communities it serves. The central question for the papers which follow is how local government is responding to these twin challenges. The papers provide insights from a number of detailed studies of individual authorities, exploring the strategies adopted to manage in response. The analyses focus on the distributive consequences for individuals and communities, but they also reflect on the wider consequences for local government itself. A particular concern is whether local responses are changing as austerity moves from its initial to its later phase. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Outlines papers presented at a seminar on German and British imperialism in a comparative perspective held on September 5-6, 2001, in Coburg, Germany. German and British colonial rule in Africa; Nature of imperial politics; Impact of German and British imperial policies.

The political cartoon became a settled part of the British daily press early in the twentieth century. The cartoon is an editorial in pictures, working with a traditional armoury of images and often including caricature and humour. Cartoonists typically enjoy high status and long tenure. Using the resources of the University of Kent Cartoon Centre database, this article analyses the depiction of party leaders in the 1997 general election and categorises the dominant images employed. The future of this cartoon tradition is explored in the light of changes in the size and design of newspapers and the development of television. Increasingly cartoonists thrive in the broadsheet papers more than the tabloids. The impact of a changing political culture is illustrated by Steve Bell's underpants motif in cartoons of John Major, and by tracing the growth of uninhibited cartoon treatment of royalty. The cartoon's unique ability to convey the unsayable through graphic images ensures that it will continue to flourish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Responds to comment on the re-interpretation of urban politics in Great Britain, published in a 2001 issue of 'Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers.' Taxonoy of contrasts between local governance and government; Analysis of the deployment of a variant of regulation theory.

Despite the adversarial character of debates in the British House of Commons, Members of Parliament (MPs) observe a highly ritualized rhetorical style emphasizing collegiality and mutual respect across party lines. The language MPs use in this context harks back to an ancient pre-democratic past. Why does a modern democratic legislature conceal partisan conflict by using pre-democratic ritualistic references to "the House" as a corporate actor? Why do they call their fiercest competitors "honourable Members" or even "Friends"? In this paper, we review the results of important empirical studies suggesting that the activities even of modern democratic parliaments (based on intense party competition) reveal traces of pre-democratic corporate bodies in some respects. Analyzing a large corpus of parliamentary speeches in the British House of Commons between 1988 and 2019, we propose a novel technique to identify and measure references to collegiality in Britain's parliamentary system. We demonstrate the extent to which such references vary systematically by party and across time, suggesting that they are used strategically in the stylized and ritualized language of parliamentary debate in the Commons depending on the status of MPs as members of government or oppositional parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about the media's neglect of the Windrush scandal, focusing on the reasons for the lack of follow-up by other media outlets, and explores the relationship between the political and media classes, the concept of "worthy victims" in the media.

Since 2010 the UK government has undertaken extensive spending cuts which have manifested in significant reductions in welfare, local authority and justice system spending. The cuts have been linked with rising poverty, food bank use and serious health issues. Such extreme cuts are likely to affect how citizens view and interact with government. This paper argues that the theories of civic voluntarism, grievance and policy feedback in combination explain why austerity has provoked relatively little political participation in the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Devolution has become a key 'global trend' over recent decades as many states have decentralised power to sub-state governments. The UK resisted this trend until the late 1990s when devolution was enacted by the then Labour Government, taking a highly asymmetrical form in which different territories have been granted different powers and institutional arrangements. Devolution allows the devolved governments to develop policies that are tailored to the needs of their areas, encouraging policy divergence, although this is countered by pressures to ensure that devolved approaches do not contradict those of the central state, promoting convergence. This review paper aims to assess the unfolding dynamics of devolution and policy divergence in the UK, spanning different policy areas such as economic development, health and social policy. The paper emphasises that devolution has altered the institutional landscape of public policy in the UK, generating some high-profile examples of policy divergence, whilst also providing evidence of policy convergence. In addition, the passage of time underlines the nature of UK devolution as an unfolding process. Its underlying asymmetries have become more pronounced as the tendency towards greater autonomy for Scotland and Wales clashes with a highly centralised mode of policymaking in Westminster, the consequences of which have spilt over into the devolved territories in the context of the post-2007 economic crisis through public expenditure cuts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introductory essay, we outline how recent events have generated considerable debate and discussion surrounding the future constitutional status of Scotland and the current devolutionary settlement in the UK, and how the aim of this collection of papers is to evaluate UK devolution and the policy mobilities surrounding it. We argue that there has been a tendency for scholars to concentrate on the detail of the constitutional and administrative structures and a reluctance to theorise devolution, and suggest geographers can offer a particular contribution here through an understanding of devolution as fundamentally about the interaction of politics, culture and territory. We discuss the value of considering the particular geographies of policy at work, and the role of the everyday work of civil servants in creating and sustaining the creation of new state spaces. We then briefly highlight the main findings of each of the papers in this special collection and show how, together, they add to our understanding of the geographies of devolution and of policy at a critical juncture in the devolution story. We conclude that whatever the particular future for the United Kingdom, the policy interactions between territories will continue to have an important role in their governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the historical formation of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the United States and argues that programme emergence depended on the ability of policy entrepreneurs to link the economic concerns of agricultural production with the ideational concern of national security. Using a historical institutionalist framework this paper stresses the critical juncture of the Second World War and the positive feedback loop created between agricultural industries and schools to understand the emergence of the NSLP. In addition, it stresses the role of frames in policy-making and focuses on the use by policy entrepreneurs of a security frame whereby child malnutrition was cast as a national security issue. The policy window of war gave policy entrepreneurs the chance to use the politically and culturally resonant frame of security, in the contexts of agricultural subsidies, to push for the creation of this programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper considers the notion that innovation in territorial governance is associated with a set of core neoliberal ideas about local economic development which have come to constitute a new and pervasive consensus. Through a case study of attempts to construct city-regional institutions in Manchester, England, over a period of 25 years, it attempts to track the themes that have underpinned the development of a local politics of economic development. The paper considers the extent to which evolution of city-regional institutions and policy accord to wider ideas about post-political forms of governance and the erosion of democracy in cities. It concludes by considering the degree to which this experience is representative of a wider orthodoxy in the governance of local economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss different approaches of performance measurement and benchmarking as “reflexive institutions” for local governments in England, Germany and Sweden from a comparative perspective.Design/methodology/approach These three countries have been selected because they represent typical (most different) cases of European local government systems and reforms. The existing theories on “institutional reflexivity” point to the potential contribution of benchmarking to public sector innovation and organizational learning. Based on survey findings, in-depth case studies, interviews and document analyses in these three countries, the paper addresses the major research question as to what extent and why benchmarking regimes vary across countries. It derives hypotheses about the impacts of benchmarking on institutional learning and innovation.Findings The outcomes suggest that the combination of three key features of benchmarking, namely – “obligation”, “sanctions” and “benchmarking authority” – in conjunction with country-specific administrative context conditions and local actor constellations – influences the impact of benchmarking as a reflexive institution.Originality/value It is shown in the paper that compulsory benchmarking on its own does not lead to reflexivity and learning, but that there is a need for autonomy and leeway for local actors to cope with benchmarking results. These findings are relevant because policy makers must decide upon the specific “governance mix” of benchmarking exercises taking their national and local contexts into account if they want them to promote institutional learning and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent decades, the devolution of power to subnational regional authorities has formed a key element of what has been termed the 'unravelling' or 'unbundling' of the state in many parts of the world. Even in the United Kingdom, with its distinctive global reputation as a power-hoarding majoritarian democracy, the devolution of powers to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland since 1998 can be located within this broader devolutionary dynamic. In recent years, this process has focused on 'the English question' and a reform agenda that claimed to offer a 'devolution revolution'. This paper offers the first research-led analysis of the scope, scale and implications of these post-2015 reforms to English governance. It utilizes Jim Bulpitt's statecraft approach to explore the changing nature of centre-periphery relationships within England. The main conclusion has been that a 'rhetoric-reality gap' currently exists and a 'devolution revolution' has not occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with current moves toward sub-national devolution in England and the prospects for a federal government system within the United Kingdom as a whole. The initial focus of the paper is upon the contested nature and governance of regions in England. Current steps toward devolution to such regions are considered through a critical lens, before moving to a wider discussion of the theory and practice of federalism and of whether England could be part of a federal system of UK government. It is concluded that the devolution agenda may proceed in a more serious and consistent manner than at present but there are severe barriers to federalism, including major constitutional constraints, the lack of a written constitution, significant asymmetry between different nations of the UK, the lack of clarity about the definition of sub-national English regions and the lack of political will. These all render a true UK federal state impossible to envisage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by a desire to improve academic outcomes and transform ‘failing’ schools, governments around the world have often turned to the development of new forms of state-funded school. This paper looks at three such instances of the introduction of new forms of schooling, within three urban localities (academy schools in London; charter schools and small schools of choice in New York City; and Schools of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro). It considers the extent to which these types of school did improve academic outcomes for their students and draws comparisons across each case study in order to understand their similarities and differences. It concludes that although the quasi-marketisation of school systems through the introduction of new (often private) providers might improve outcomes, this is not the only means by which improvement can be attained; and that instead the introduction of new forms of school may be successful because this enables certain other changes to happen. It highlights the limited nature of impact evidence available in all instances, which restricts our ability to properly evaluate the effect of new school types on outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper reviews changes over the last 10 years in the governance arrangements and processes involved in sub-national economic development and cross-boundary collaboration. It begins with a summary of the institutional changes in the main countries of the UK, in the dual context of fiscal retrenchment and neo-liberal deregulation. The picture that emerges is one of a confused patchwork in England; incremental modifications in Scotland; and embryonic developments in Wales. This is then contrasted with a range of experiences in other countries, involving wholesale recentralisation and a sidelining of local and regional institutions at one end of the spectrum, to resistance to restructuring through repurposing, increased mutual collaboration and improved management at the other. However, enhanced economic links and benefits do not automatically flow from any particular form of rescaled governance arrangements. As our original article found, the key ingredients are robust and inclusive political and decision-making processes, a suite of appropriate policy instruments and deployment of sufficient resources to ensure that they have an effect. The paper also concludes that a more comprehensive theoretical framework is needed to advance understanding of what lies behind different forms of state governance rescaling, and what makes a given instance more (or less) effective than another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By banning the Daily Worker, the organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), in January 1941, the British Government hoped to silence a vocal critic of the war effort. In reality, it failed, simply forcing the CPGB to carry out new methods of disseminating its message, while also handing the party a new issue on which to campaign. This article explores the ways in which the CPGB sought to circumvent the ban, and build a coalition of support against it. This article will also examine how Daily Worker ban transcended two distinct political positions held by the CPGB - anti- and later pro-war - and how the narrative evolved from one of the creeping authoritarianism of the State, to that of a counter-productive act damaging morale. Ultimately, this article will argue that the CPGB's campaign played a significant role in forcing the Government to lift the ban. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an empirically-based overview of changes and challenges for UK civil society in the first years of the twenty-first century. It draws together recent published research findings about volunteering and smaller civil society organizations, discerning themes in published studies by the author and other researchers. It concludes with a discussion about the inter-relationship between changes in civil society and changes in public policy, including new public governance and the marketization of the welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second of two linked papers that focus on the work of the Royal Fine Art Commission (RFAC), which for three quarters of a century held the mantel of the UK Government's advisor on design in the built environment. This paper tells the story of the organization's final 15 years when, under a new and charismatic leader, the Commission substantially changed its modus operandi, and came out of the shadows, although without ever fully embracing the modern era of government. Analysis of the archives are supplemented by what the limited available literature tells us about the RFAC and by a small number of interviews with key stakeholders with firsthand experience of the operation of the RFAC; those who either worked for it, were responsible for it within Government, or were reviewed by it. The experience offers valuable insights into the practices and problematics of design governance that today, internationally, forms one of the keystones of modern day planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city region devolution deals have ushered Directly Elected Mayors (DEMs) to the front and centre of the political and governance landscape within English metropolitan regions in the UK. DEMs are invested with high expectations to deliver a range of beneficial urban outcomes. Yet, there is little empirical evidence on the how such Mayoral leadership might act differently to other types of civic leadership to bring about these outcomes. This paper through the deployment of an innovative methodology, a diary analysis, examines how different this leadership model is when compared to its immediate predecessor; the council leader. It finds that the new Mayoral role is less about ‘city management’ and more about ‘city representation’ particularly on the national and international political stage. The paper concludes that this has implications for resourcing this particular leadership model and for the wider research agenda into political and executive leadership of our cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a reflection on the UK governments' latest regulatory intervention affecting all non-financial institutions, including the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR). The intervention forms part of the government's response to the economic downturn experienced in the UK and requires regulators to take into account not only their responsibilities for maintaining safety, but also the impact of their actions on economic growth. While this may be a valid proposition for some organisations, the paper suggests that the unique characteristics of the nuclear industry should exempt its regulator from these government provisions. The paper identifies existing and historic regulatory and governance weaknesses that would suggest regulatory intervention should be reviewed but not from a need to enhance economic growth. Rather a need exists to redesign the regulatory process so that the industry's hazards and risks arising are mitigated. An inherent conflict of interest is also identified that compounds historic governance problems where publicly-funded, government-appointed regulators attempt to regulate publicly-funded, government-appointed third-party organisations. While in neoliberal terms this may not be seen as an issue, I examine notable, generic, regulatory incidents where managerial and regulatory action failed to resolve resource allocation issues between the need to improve levels of economic growth or safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on politics and government in Great Britain, while highlighting Great Britain's Green Paper, entitled `The Learning Age.' Accusations which the Green Paper conversion attracted; Distinction between White and Green Papers; What the contents of the Green Paper indicates. INSET: The Learning Age.

The article reports that the Conservative election victory on June 9, 1983 in Great Britain has added weight to the Government's White Paper on cable development which was jointly drafted by the Home Office and the Department of Industry. Since then, the Radio Regulatory Department of the Home Office has been transferred, lock, stock and barrel, to the Department of industry, an early indication that industrial reasons for the promotion of cable technology may prevail in government thinking over calculations of possible cultural consequences. The entire subject is an amalgam of ideological premises with constantly accelerating technical innovation, differing engineering expertise, national aspirations for a place in the sun, show business calculations, industrial policy, broadcasting policy, and public incomprehension on difference.

This article explores the political career and writings of Richard Champion (1743–1791), a Bristolian Quaker and merchant who acted as a local supporter and agent of the Rockingham Whigs. It aims to recover a forgotten aspect of Lewis Namier's original ambition to understand eighteenth-century politics through the perspective of relatively ordinary people such as merchants and civil servants. However, against old Namierite assumptions, as well as much of the recent historiography on the post-1760 period in British politics which focuses on a dichotomous conflict between 'radical Whigs' and 'new Tories', this article restores the importance of the Rockingham Whigs. Importantly, it shows that a commercial Dissenter such as Champion could be fully attuned to the aristocratic and party-centred interpretation of British politics associated with the Rockinghamites and Edmund Burke, and thus encourages us to consider the idea of 'aristocratic government' in inclusive and eclectic ways. The case-study of Champion demonstrates that a close reading of political correspondence from the period can confirm, as well as destabilise, the Whig history of party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the debate on the White Paper, "The New NHS--Modern--Dependable" which bears the hallmarks of pragmatism which have characterized many of the Labour Government's initiatives in Great Britain. The National Health Service (NHS) presented Prime Minister Tony Blair's government with a considerable challenge. Labour in opposition had opposed the Conservative Government's health reforms and continued to campaign against bureaucracy and yet some aspects of the reforms seemed to work. Labour had opposed GP fundholding because it seemed to increase inequity, and yet fundholding had been adopted by many doctors and more than half of the population were served by fundholding practices. Labour had promised improvements in the NHS and yet had accepted tough public spending limits. The White Paper seems to have steered the new Government through the first and second of the challenges, the third will only be addressed if the NHS is a clear winner in the Comprehensive Spending Review. The dilemma of the Conservative health reforms is tackled head on by declaring that what counts is what works. The White Paper retains many of the key features of the previous Government's reforms.

The form of place-based economic strategy that is the focus of this paper is 'fleet-of-foot' partnership arrangements. Contributing to the theorisation of these institutional configurations, which are propounded by some as more flexible and responsive than democratic-administrative alternatives, the paper investigates the empirical situation in England that has unfolded over recent years. Tracing the recent historical evolution of sub-national structures that could be considered 'fleet-of-foot', the paper analyses the implications for place-based economic strategies at large. Through an analysis of Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), the paper examines the extent to which the conceptual principles underpinning the notion of 'fleet-of-foot' arrangements have informed the configuration of LEPs, emphasising the importance of the legacy of past political constructions. Drawing attention to some of the primary weaknesses of 'fleet-of-foot' arrangements, the paper concludes that there are some inherent limitations to the present configuration of LEPs. These impede such partnerships in opening up space for a richer constellation of actors to participate in governance forums across flexible and functional geographies, or achieve efficient outcomes. More broadly, the paper contributes to the literature on place-based economic strategies and contemporary trends in economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Painter J. Regional biopolitics,Regional Studies. This paper seeks to bring ideas about biopolitics and its associated political technologies to bear on the variety of regional geographies that affect the practices of governing populations today. After outlining some of the ways in which populations and their characteristics feature as matters of governmental concern, the paper then briefly summarizes Michel Foucault's account of biopolitics and its association with the formation of national population and nation-states. While there are good reasons why discussions of biopolitics have tended to emphasize the national scale, a full account of biopolitical practices would also attend to the complex spatialities of populations and government. Drawing on Stephen Legg's scalar account of the relationship between population, biopolitics and government, the paper considers the tentative emergence of what might be termed regional biopolitics in contemporary Europe. Recent changes in workforce skills policy in the United Kingdom provide a case study to examine how a typical biopolitical concern (the skill levels of the population) relates to the rise and subsequent fall of regional governance in England. Painter J. 区域生态政治学. 区域研究. 本文寻求引入生态政治学思想及相关的政治技术，来影响对当今人口管治实践产生着影响的一系列区域地理研究。本文首先罗列人口及其特征成为政府关注的事情的一些途径，而后简要总结米歇尔·福柯对生态政治学的分析及其与国家人口和民族国家形成的关系。尽管生态政治学倾向于强调国家尺度有充分的理由，但对生态政治实践的详尽讨论也要考虑到人口和政府的复杂空间性。基于斯蒂芬·莱格对于人口、生态政治和国家之间关系的尺度分析，本文探讨在当今欧洲正在出现的、或许可以称之为区域生态政治学的东西。最后，使用最近英国劳动力技能政策变化这个案例，来揭示典型的生态政治学关注（人口的技能水平）如何与英国区域管治的起落相关。 生态政治学 劳动力市场 人口 区域管治 尺度 技能 Painter J. La biopolitique régionale,Regional Studies. Cet article cherche à faire peser des questions à l'égard de la biopolitique et des technologies politiques connexes sur la diversité des géographies régionales qui influent aujourd'hui sur la gouvernance. Une fois esquissé quelques-unes des façons dont les populations et leurs traits figurent en tant que questions qui préoccupent l'administration, l'article résume brièvement le compte-rendu de Michel Foucault au sujet de la biopolitique et de son lien avec l'établissement des populations nationales et des États-nations. Alors qu'il y a de bonnes raisons pourquoi des discussions sur la biopolitique ont eu tendance à focaliser l'échelle nationale, un compte-rendu détaillé des pratiques biopolitiques aborderait aussi les spatialités des populations et de l'administration. Puisant dans le compte-rendu scalaire de Stephen Legg à propos du rapport entre les populations, la biopolitique et l'administration, cet article aborde les premiers pas vers la biopolitique régionale dans l'Europe contemporaine. Au Royaume-Uni, des modifications apportées récemment à la politique en faveur des compétences professionnelles fournissent une étude de cas pour examiner comment une question biopolitique type (les niveaux de compétences de la population) se rapporte à l'essor et au déclin de la gouvernance en Angleterre. Biopolitique Marché du travail Population Gouvernance régionale Échelle Compétences Painter J. Regionale Biopolitik,Regional Studies. In diesem Beitrag werden Ideen über Biopolitik und die zugehörigen politischen Technologien im Zusammenhang mit den verschiedenartigen regionalen Geografien, die sich heute auf die Praktiken beim Regieren von Bevölkerungen auswirken, vorgestellt. Nach Beschreibung einiger Beispiele dafür, auf welche Weise Bevölkerungen und ihre Merkmale für Regierungen von Interesse sind, wird Michel Foucaults Beschreibung der Biopolitik und ihrer Verknüpfung mit der Bildung von nationalen Bevölkerungen und Nationalstaaten kurz zusammengefasst. Obwohl es gute Gründe dafür gibt, dass bei einer Erörterung der Biopolitik in der Regel der nationale Maßstab betont wird, würde eine vollständige Aufstellung der biopolitischen Praktiken auch den komplexen Räumlichkeiten von Bevölkerungen und Regierungen Rechnung tragen. Ausgehend von Stephen Leggs skalarer Darstellung der Beziehung zwischen Bevölkerung, Biopolitik und Regierung wird in diesem Beitrag das zögerliche Entstehen einer Entwicklung untersucht, die sich als regionale Biopolitik im modernen Europa bezeichnen ließe. Die jüngsten Änderungen bei der britischen Politik zur Weiterbildung von Arbeitskräften bieten eine Fallstudie zur Untersuchung der Frage, wie ein typisch biopolitischer Aspekt (der Ausbildungsstand der Bevölkerung) mit dem Aufstieg und anschließenden Niedergang der regionalen Regierungsführung in England zusammenhängt. Biopolitik Arbeitsmarkt Bevölkerung Regionale Regierungsführung Maßstab Qualifikationen Painter J. Biopolítica regional,Regional Studies. El objetivo de este artículo es aportar ideas sobre la biopolítica y sus tecnologías políticas relacionadas que aborden las diferentes geografías regionales que afectan a las prácticas de gobierno de la población de hoy día. Tras explicar algunos de las maneras en las que las poblaciones y sus características representan un interés para el Gobierno, en este artículo resumimos brevemente el relato de Michel Foucault sobre la biopolítica y su relación con la formación de poblaciones y estados nacionales. Aunque existen buenas razones para explicar por qué en los debates se suele hacer hincapié en la biopolítica a escala nacional, un relato completo de las prácticas biopolíticas también serviría para tener en cuenta las espacialidades complejas de poblaciones y gobierno. Basándonos en la descripción escalar de Stephen Legg de la relación entre población, biopolítica y gobierno, en este artículo consideramos la paulatina aparición de lo que podríamos llamar biopolítica regional en la Europa actual. Los recientes cambios en la política británica sobre las cualificaciones de la mano de obra sirven de estudio de caso para examinar de qué modo un problema típico de biopolítica (los niveles de capacitación de la población) se relaciona con el aumento y la posterior caída del gobierno regional en Inglaterra. Biopolítica Mercado de trabajo Población Gobierno regional Escala Habilidades [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines the emergence of schools ‘micro-computing’ in the UK between 1977 and 1984 – a period of significant educational, technological and political change. During this time, computing developed rapidly from a niche activity in a few select schools to the state subsidized purchasing of a ‘computer in every school’ and the nationwide promotion of computers as a feature of curriculum and pedagogy. Through a series of in-depth retrospective interviews with key policy actors (n=20) this paper develops a detailed ‘policy historiography’ of this period - shedding light on the complex power relations and interests that underpinned these developments. In particular, the paper highlights the origins of these policy interventions in earlier activities, and examines the negotiations and conflicts between and within the two government departments involved in the mass introduction of computing into the UK school system. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]