Inequality, Poverty, Education : A Political Economy of School Exclusion

This book challenges the practice of exclusion by uncovering its roots in 19th century social and educational policy targeting poor children. Revealing a hidden history of exclusion, this analysis exposes the connections between the state, the education system and social policy, and opens a space for radical alternatives. 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 Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgements 10 1 Introduction: Elements for a Political Economy of Exclusion 11 The problem of exclusion 15 Genealogy and governmentality: elements for a counter-history of exclusion 23 Reform and the political economy of exclusion 33 2 Pauperism, Delinquency and Learning to Labour 39 Threats and victims 39 Threats 42 Victims 46 The case of Frances Colpit: 1819–1829 47 Conclusion 57 3 Labour, Poverty and the Export of Destitute Children As 'Waste' 59 The traffic in children 61 The Children's Friend Society 1830–1840: from charity to trade 64 The Hackney kidnappers: parish, parents and children 67 The children speak 72 Legitimating the 'traffic' in children 75 Conclusion: legalising exclusion and the governmentalisation of pauperism 78 4 Security, Population and the New Management of the Poor 80 Blaming the poor 81 Malthusian realism, Miles and moral entrepreneurship 84 The 'moral entrepreneur' and the formation of policy 87 5 Disciplining and Punishment: The New Exclusionary Regime Emerges 93 The new prisons: Parkhurst, The Penitentiary Model and a clash of values 97 Parkhurst: the reality of the new regime 101 6 Ragged Schools, Child-Centred Education and the Struggle for Egalitarian Politics 109 Including the poor: Carpenter, Unitarianism and alternative schools 110 The project of reform through education 117 Concluding remarks: punishing, normalising and biopolitics 126 7 Mettray: Normalisation or Rescue? 128 Demetz' Mettray: healing, holding, guiding, teaching 130 Foucault's Mettray: normalisation through the Carceral 135 8 The Institutionalisation of Exclusion within Education 142 Reconceptualising the pauper child 144 Education as 'Remedy' for the 'Disease of Pauperism' 146 Prevention and correction: industrial and reformatory schools 154 Conclusion 161 9 'No More Excuses': Neoliberalism and the New Exclusion 165 Misspent youth and the new criminalisation 167 Context: the present 171 No More Excuses 178 Conclusion 183 References 188 Index 201 Front Matter....Pages i-ix Introduction: Elements for a Political Economy of Exclusion....Pages 1-28 Pauperism, Delinquency and Learning to Labour....Pages 29-48 Labour, Poverty and the Export of Destitute Children As ‘Waste’....Pages 49-69 Security, Population and the New Management of the Poor....Pages 70-82 Disciplining and Punishment: The New Exclusionary Regime Emerges....Pages 83-98 Ragged Schools, Child-Centred Education and the Struggle for Egalitarian Politics....Pages 99-117 Mettray: Normalisation or Rescue?....Pages 118-131 The Institutionalisation of Exclusion within Education....Pages 132-154 ‘No More Excuses’: Neoliberalism and the New Exclusion....Pages 155-177 Back Matter....Pages 178-195 This text challenges the practice of exclusion by uncovering its roots in 19th century social and educational policy targeting poor children. Revealing a hidden history of exclusion, this analysis exposes the connections between the state, the education system and social policy, and opens a space for radical alternatives