The 'Great Refusal'? A Marcusian response to the Bright Blue vision of education in the 'Big Society'

Bates, Agnieszka (2015) The 'Great Refusal'? A Marcusian response to the Bright Blue vision of education in the 'Big Society'. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47 (4). pp. 350-366. ISSN 0022-0620

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Abstract

The modernisation of education and other public services remains a major political objective of the current Coalition government in the UK. This paper focuses on Tory Modernisation 2.0, a blueprint for the second stage of the public sector reform produced by the Conservative pressure group, Bright Blue. From the critical theory perspective expounded by Herbert Marcuse, the Conservative vision of the ‘Big Society’ is a one-dimensional conceptualisation of social relations. In the guise of pragmatic, sensible prescriptions for how the institutions of society should be reformed, Tory Modernisation 2.0 advocates an acceleration of marketisation, which is both potentially destructive and irreversible. Against the backdrop of a bleak, one-dimensional society promoted by the Conservative Party, education has become a site of struggle between what Marcuse terms the dialectic of domination and the ‘Great Refusal’.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Educational Administration and History on 09/03/2015, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/00220620.2015.996859.”
Uncontrolled Keywords:	modernisation,education,neoliberalism,big society,critical theory,qualitative change
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Education and Lifelong Learning
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Research in Higher Education and Society
Depositing User:	Pure Connector
Date Deposited:	23 Oct 2015 15:01
Last Modified:	15 Jul 2025 14:30
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/54803
DOI:	10.1080/00220620.2015.996859

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