Individualism And Community: Education And Social Policy In The Postmodern Condition

by Michael Peters, James Marshall

Overview

Examining, in the widest sense, the changes in political philosophy that have occurred in Western capitalist states since the early 1980s, this book focuses on the introduction of neo-liberal principles in the combined area of social and education policy. New Zealand presents a paradigm example of the neo-liberal shift in political philosophy. From constituting the social laboratory of the Western world in the 1930s in terms of social welfare provision, New Zealand has become the neo-liberal experiment of the fully marketised society in the 1990s. Against the theoretical background of educational theory and practice, this book examines neo-liberalism and its critiques as responses to the so-called crisis of the welfare state and argues for a reformulated critical social policy in the postmodern condition. The conclusions about social policy drawn by the authors can be generalized to similar situations in other Western capitalist countries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781135717933
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	11/01/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	833 KB

About the Author

Michael Peters

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Crisis of the Welfare State in the Postmodern Condition; Section I: Communitarian Responses to the Crisis; Chapter 1 Social Policy and the Move to Community; Chapter 2 Democracy and Community-based Social Policy; Chapter 3 Welfare and the Future of Community: The New Zealand Experiment; Section II: Neo-liberal Individualism; Chapter 4 The New Right Reforms of Education; Chapter 5 The Politics of Choice: Public Choice Theory and the Autonomous Chooser; Chapter 6 Children of Rogernomics: The New Right, Individualism and the Culture of Narcissism; Section III: Methodological Responses to the Crisis; Chapter 7 From Evaluation to Education: The Ideal Learning Community; Chapter 8 Educational Policy Analysis and the Politics of Interpretation; Section IV: The Postmodern ‘Way Out’; Chapter 9 Postmodernism: The Critique of Reason and the Rise of New Social Movements; Chapter 10 Beyond the Philosophy of the Subject: Liberalism, Education and the Critique of Individualism; Chapter 11 Individualism and Community: Education and the Politics of Difference; Conclusion: Critical Social Policy in The Postmodern Condition; Bibliography Index;

Editorial Reviews

An evaluative review of New Zealand politics beginning in the 1980s, a period which hailed a radical right-wing experiment in that country reflecting, more or less, the political philosophies of many Western capitalist states. The focal point for the study is the crisis of the Welfare State in a postmodern era, and the relevant communitarian, neo-liberal, and postmodern responses available to questions of public policy, education, and the philosophies of collective versus individual. The volume is based on various articles published in New Zealand by the co-authors during the period of 1984 to 1994. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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