'What will yours grow into?' Governmentality, governance, social science and the Child Trust Fund

Finlayson, Alan (2011) 'What will yours grow into?' Governmentality, governance, social science and the Child Trust Fund. Policy & Politics, 39 (4). pp. 547-566. ISSN 1470-8442

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Abstract

This article demonstrates a governmentality approach to policy, taking as an example the Child Trust Fund devised and implemented by the New Labour government in the United Kingdom (UK). I argue that in making sense of such a policy we should, as interpretive theories of governance tell us, pay attention to the ideas and beliefs that shaped it and to the longer genealogy that made those ideas possible. In addition, I argue, it is important to study a policy not only as an outcome of the actions of various agents but also as a cause of events in the domains into which it enters. Examining how policies ‘emerge’ out of a complex of activities, and how they then become a part of these, is, I suggest, a vital complement to other methodologies, and enables us to ask broad political-theoretical questions of both policy and politics.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies (former - to 2024)
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Political, Social and International Studies Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Cultural Politics, Communications & Media Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Research Groups > Policy & Politics
Depositing User:	Katherine Humphries
Date Deposited:	02 Feb 2012 10:10
Last Modified:	28 Mar 2025 02:49
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/36738
DOI:	10.1332/030557311X574234

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