ERIC Number: EJ1074196
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0620
EISSN: N/A
The "Great Refusal"? A Marcusian Response to the Bright Blue Vision of Education in the "Big Society"
Bates, Agnieszka
Journal of Educational Administration and History, v47 n4 p350-366 2015
The modernisation of education and other public services remains a major political objective of the current Coalition government in the UK. This paper focuses on "Tory Modernisation 2.0," a blueprint for the second stage of the public sector reform produced by the Conservative pressure group, Bright Blue. From the critical theory perspective expounded by Herbert Marcuse, the Conservative vision of the "Big Society" is a one-dimensional conceptualisation of social relations. In the guise of pragmatic, sensible prescriptions for how the institutions of society should be reformed, "Tory Modernisation 2.0" advocates an acceleration of marketisation, which is both potentially destructive and irreversible. Against the backdrop of a bleak, one-dimensional society promoted by the Conservative Party, education has become a site of struggle between what Marcuse terms the dialectic of domination and the "Great Refusal".
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Politics of Education, Educational Change, Social Influences, Neoliberalism, Critical Theory, Political Attitudes, Commercialization, Public Education
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A