Economic crises such as those of 1929, 1973 and 2008 appear to associate with shifts in the rhetorics of management. These dates mark the end of expansionary phases within an economic cycle, and they portend what James O'Connor has called a "fiscal crisis of the state". It is argued, speculatively, that immediately before and after an economic…

Personalisation is an emerging "movement" within education. Its roots reside in marketing theory, not in educational theory. As a concept it admits a good deal of confusion. It can refer either to a new mode of governance for the public services, or it qualifies the noun "learning", as in "personalised learning". The concern here is with its…

In the UK, the vocabulary of public services is becoming infused with the prefixes "inter"-, "multi-" and "co-". Public-sector agencies are being encouraged to adopt"'multi"- or "inter-agency" configurations; "workforce reform" seeks to dissolve once-impermeable professional boundaries; leadership is to be "distributed". This tendency is referred…

In management theory, attention to the emotions is increasing, mainly for economic reasons. Within the management of education, so-called transformational leadership is becoming the new orthodoxy, and a central aspect of it is emotional intelligence. This can be interpreted sociologically, from both Durkheimian and Weberian perspectives. It is…

Criticizes the Scottish Education Department for its 1987 consultation paper "Curriculum and Assessment in Scotland: A Policy for the 90s" seeking to revive the managerial style of entrepreneurial capitalism, namely Taylorism. The new policy is under attack for countermanding teachers' newly acquired decision-making powers. Includes 34 references.…

Explores management of expenditures for public education in welfare state. Faced with fiscal overload, Scottish government is seeking to curb expenditure by engaging the compliance of both professional educators and parents under the guise of school self-management. The government's case rests on a (democratic) rhetoric of choice and ownership but…