Introduction: the modernisation project
This article explores and illustrates the
ways in which the Labour government
of the United Kingdom (UK) has pursued a programme of modernisation of
the public sector, including, indeed
perhaps especially, publicly-funded
educational provision. I review some
of the processes of modernisation
undertaken to date by the new Labour governments since 1997, and consider
what assumptions about governance and the redesign of national systems are
implicit in these processe
s. The article attempts to discuss possibilities for a
resolution of apparent c
ontradictions in the modern
isation project as applied
to public sector services, through the
adoption of a critical perspective on
social capital theory. Put briefly, te
nsions have been identified by some
commentators between the UK government’s preoccupation with the
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