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The outputs presented in part submission of a PhD by publication represent the body of my published work over the past ten years. They cover policy, practice and legislative developments during both the New Labour and Coalition Governments that have ultimately led to the demise of the Probation Service as a unified public sector organisation. Two main themes are evident in my writing. The first is a critique of how an ideological commitment to economic neo-liberalism and accompanying social conservatism has shaped contemporary probation policy and public sector provision more generally. The second significant strand has been an exploration of the impact of these developments on the occupational culture and working practices of probation work.

No / This important text will provide a critical analysis of contemporary developments in child care policy under New Labour and the resulting policy and practice implications. The authors will draw on sociological debates, the growing children's rights literature and wider developments within social policy in order to provide a thorough and balanced guide to contemporary developments in this rapidly changing field. Ideologies behind recent initiatives in a wide range of practice areas are explored, and the implementation of key developments are appraised. This will be primary reading for all students specializing in work with children and their families.

L’arrivée au pouvoir du New Labour, en 1997, laissait présager un changement radical d’orientation à bien des égards. La gestion de la diversité religieuse et culturelle, en raison de l’attachement profond de Tony Blair au multiculturalisme, était certainement l’un des domaines sur lesquels celui-ci était le plus attendu. Notre recherche s’intéresse à cet aspect de sa gouvernance en se concentrant plus particulièrement sur le système éducatif anglais, et sur la façon dont ont été gérées les pratiques culturelles et religieuses des élèves musulmans, hindous, sikhs, juifs et chrétiens. Nous étudions l’apport du New Labour en considérant la situation dont il hérita – fruit de la spécificité du système éducatif britannique, de sa rencontre avec l’islam, le judaïsme, l’hindouisme et le sikhisme, et de la marginalisation des membres affiliés à ces religions par le gouvernement de Margaret Thatcher. Nous soulignons plus particulièrement les contradictions et les paradoxes de la gouvernance de Tony Blair. Si l’intégration des élèves non chrétiens fut au cœur de son discours politique et programmatique, elle demeura néanmoins essentiellement emblématique. Le système éducatif se trouva au centre de politiques intégrationnistes, qui le firent évoluer, et firent évoluer le modèle multiculturaliste britannique, dans une direction opposée à celle que l’on attendait. Au lieu d’obtenir des aménagements plus conséquents autour de leurs pratiques culturelles et religieuses, les élèves non chrétiens furent contraints à une adaptation croissante qui entraîna une détérioration de leur situation sur un certain nombre de points. / The election of New Labour, in 1997, suggested a radical change in many areas. The management of religious and cultural diversity, due to Tony Blair’s profound attachment to multiculturalism, was certainly a field in which expectations were particularly high. Our research deals with this aspect of his governance focusing on the English educational system, and on the management of cultural and religious practices, as far as Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Christian pupils are concerned. We study New Labour’s contribution, considering the situation they inherited, a consequence of the specificity of the British educational system, of its encounter with Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Sikhism, and of the marginalisation of these religions cultural and religious practices by Margaret Thatcher’s government. We emphasize more particularly the contradictions and paradoxes of Tony Blair’s government policies. The integration of non-Christian pupils was indeed at the heart of their political and programmatic discourses. It remained however mainly emblematic. The educational system found itself at the centre of integrationist policies, which caused it to evolve, as well as British multiculturalism, in an unexpected way. Instead of getting a more favourable answer to the claims surrounding their cultural and religious practices, non-Christian pupils were increasingly compelled to adapt, causing their situation to worsen on a certain number of aspects.

The main objective of this bachelor thesis is to analyse the dynamic and complex decision-making process that households with temporary overseas migrating family members do before migrating. The aim of this thesis is to understand why this phenomenon occurs in less developed areas, though the background of the thesis is trying to address the need of positive relationship between migration and development. Based on the theorectical benchmark of neoclassical microeconomic theory and new economics of labour migration theory certain factors were identified that could influence the decision to migrate. By using a mixed method with qualitative semi-structed face-to-face interviews combined with a survey of nine question relating to specific factors this study was able to create an understanding of the reality of migrant households, though a micro field study was conducted in Kebumen regency in Indonesia. The findings clearly shows that temporary overseas migration from less developed areas is a household decision that is influenced by local gender aspects and addressed by new well-functioning established markets for overseas work. Our findings also suggests that temporary migration is a way for the family to spread their risks, related to income and farming activites, and to achive further development, where other markets and institutions do not meet their needs. Policies regarding these gender aspects and the need of institutions that could improve the situation are recommended though remittances in that case might have a more long-term sustainable impact on the households.

This thesis examines the Skills Strategy for England under New Labour as a contested project to govern workplace high(er) skill aspiration and behaviour. It analyses differentiated state strategies to promote and (re)produce responsible skills ambitions; the engagement of employer and employee representatives with these strategies to stretch and reshape, and resist and restate the project; and the implications for skills provision. The research involved interpretive analysis of policy documents, and in-depth interviews with policy-making elites; strategic representatives of business and worker/learner interests; and skills providers. To support my empirical focus this thesis is located within theories of the changing form and function of the state. Adopting a ‘cultural political economy’ approach, and drawing on critical governance studies, to illuminate the interplay between meaning production and practice, I challenge the conclusion that mechanisms for skills creation in England are premised on a misunderstanding of the skills motivations of employers and employees. Instead I expose state work through policy to produce and export a skills logic; constituting and positioning governable subjects in relation to their internalisation of these logics; and the role of differentiated policies to manoeuvre subjects towards preferential skills behaviours. The findings highlight that what is presented as a coherent ‘partnership’ approach to producing enhanced skills can be better understood as three distinctive state strategies, (demand-led; leading demand; circumventing lack of demand) , which are aimed at differently imagined and constructed workplaces, (enlightened; inert; or deviant), depending on their demonstrable degree of responsible skills ambition. I therefore term this project ‘state-steered voluntarism’. However, I also expose the limitations and limits of this project. Attempts to present policy coherence lacquers over latent tensions and contradictions between the different skills strategies, creating policy ‘opacities’ which serve as spaces for the strategic voices of employer/employee representation to talk back; disorganising the practices and processes of skills delivery.

The Diploma thesis "The Rise and Fall of New Labour: A Political Ideology or a Just a Trend?" focuses on the analysis of a British political course called New Labour. The research focuses on internal and external factors that had allowed this ideology to dominate the British politics over the last 13 years under the established brand of Labour Party. This thesis constitutes a comparative case study, based on the theoretical assumption of time, as well as economic and social constrains of the New Labour phenomenon. The circumstances which back in 1997 allowed the election triumph of New Labour, are often similar to those, that let to its decline a decade later, amid the new social, economic and political climate, caused its decline. This hypothesis is confronted with a secondary research based on the evaluation of broader economic, social and political influences. While the study has proved the validity of the New Labour idea in times of favorable economic and political circumstances, such as the combination of divided opposition and economic boom, it has also shown its failure in the times of economic downturn. Although the vision of New Labour was rejected by the current Labour Party, research and the governing coalition prove that the ideology can successfully operate in combination with...

The neighbourhood became one of the key sites for urban policy development during the previous New Labour government, and Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders were amongst their final strategies to combat “the most difficult problems faced by deprived neighbourhoods” (SEU 2000:5). This thesis explores the process of neighbourhood management in the coastal town of Ilfracombe, Devon. Ilfracombe features the characteristics of decline found in a number of coastal towns across the country, and suffers from high levels of deprivation (House of Commons Report 2006). Consequently, the neighbourhood management pathfinder ‘Transform’ was deployed in Ilfracombe in an attempt to address high deprivation. This thesis uses empirical findings collected through interviews and focus groups to examine the process of ‘Transform’, from its conception to its practical operation. It specifically considers the ‘voices’ of residents whose opinions and experiences, as targets of neighbourhood intervention are not always sufficiently documented within policy narratives. Consequently, the thesis unravels the process of neighbourhood management through findings generated by qualitative research ‘on the ground’. These are then examined through the lens of governmentality, allowing the methods, practice and outcomes of government, to be unpacked through a presentation of my empirical findings (Foucault 1991). These examinations take a particular interest in notions of community engagement and participation, partnership working, and the process of social exclusion. Here, partnership is demonstrated to be a tentative and fragile process underlined by local histories and differing temporal frameworks for action. But, this research also demonstrates that joint working can be improved through neighbourhood management which widens routes of communication to officers ‘on the ground’. However, what this thesis hopes to demonstrate most strongly is the continuing depth of problems felt by residents in Ilfracombe and that the process of ‘inclusion’ through paid work and ‘active’ citizenship, underlined in Labour’s neighbourhood renewal strategies, is not tackling some of the main problems of ‘deprived’ neighbourhoods, as experienced by the residents themselves.