ABSTRACT

As these quotes from the Prime Minister of the UK and his Secretary of State for Employment and Education display, the UK government has undergone an institutional tum. The espousal of self-help has become a modem-day mantra. Across all government departments, policy documents have started to explore how self-help can be used to achieve their objectives (e.g., DETR, 1998; DfEE, 1999; DSS, 1999; Home Office, 1999; Social Exclusion Unit, 1998, 2000). This institutional tum, however, is neither confined to New Labour nor is it occurring only within the UK. Wherever one looks in the advanced economies, the traditional authoritarian approach that sought to socially engineer populations by doing things to them and 'disciplining' them is receding from view. In its place is emerging an approach founded upon an as yet ill-defined principle of 'self-discipline' in which people are being enabled to do things for themselves.