Inequality, Poverty, Education A Political Economy of School Exclusion

This book develops a political economy and a genealogy of school exclusion in order to reveal exclusion to be a symptom of more fundamental issues relating to poverty and inequality, reflected in the role of the state in managing their consequences, particularly regarding juvenile delinquency. It uses archival and documentary evidence to uncover the roots of exclusionary practices in political and economic struggles going back to the 19th century. These conflicts have had decisive effects on key shifts in social and educational policy from the Poor Law Reforms of 1834 to the emergence of the welfare state and the current neoliberal reconstitution of society according to the model of the market. In arguing that competing views of an equitable and just society underlie exclusion, the analysis opens up a space for envisaging radical new approaches and practices for dealing with children in trouble.

Francesca Ashurst is Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University, UK.
 

Couze Venn is Visiting Professor at Goldsmiths, University of London, UK, and at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

1. Introduction: Elements for a Political Economy of Exclusion

2. Pauperism, Delinquency, and Learning to Labour

3. Labour, Poverty and the Export of Destitute Children as 'Waste'

4. Security, Population and the New Management of the Poor

5. Disciplining and Punishment: the New Exclusionary Regime Emerges

6. Ragged Schools, Child-Centred Education and the Struggle for Egalitarian Politics

7. Mettray: Normalisation or Rescue?

8. The Institutionalisation of Exclusion within Education

9. 'No More Excuses' Neoliberalism and the New Exclusion