Description:
Although this is not a book which seeks to provide a discourse analysis,
the argument implicit throughout is that those interested in the evolution of
social policy, or situated within Children’s Services (maybe as service providers,
students and associated academics), might begin to think more deeply
and more politically about how the promoters of ‘transformation’ put language
to work. More specifically, how do government ministers (and other primary
definers) persuade, cajole, and enlist support from a diverse range of professional
fields for policies which can be seen interpreted, in a number of ways, as
deeply retrogressive? (Boltanski and Chiapello 2005)? What, moreover, is the
context for the ‘transformation’ of Children’s Services? Why are particular
measures being introduced (or evolving) now rather than at some other time?
What is the broader political, economic and social context? What are the core
ideas underpinning ‘transformation’? Are there are ‘common-sense’ assumptions
which are left unchallenged, not interrogated? Are there positions which
are silenced or not heard from? What role is being fulfilled by ‘experts’, particularly
academics? How are professional roles being delineated anew?