ABSTRACT
This chapter offers the ways in which centralised, rationalis(ed) policy relies on affect in order for its successful implementation in practice. It suggests that a collectively met challenge can result in the spreading of an intensified affective response at the same time as cementing divisions, and emphasising competitiveness and difference between members of the group. The chapter argues that specific, short-lived events such as Results Day and an Ofsted inspection can bring about both a sense of loss of the happy object and a return of it. Extracts from various teachers' accounts of their pre-Ofsted experience speak of anxiety, uncertainty, confusion and a sense of being stuck in an extended moment during which all thoughts of innovation. Some fears may be perceived or understood as rational that is posing potentially a very real physical threat to the person, as in fear of snakes in certain parts of the world, others less so.
