ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that the notion of understanding policy through time is also about understanding the policy through space, that time and space are distinct from each other, but also necessary for understanding each other. The chapter focuses on the concept of relational space, drawing predominantly on the work of two geographers Doreen Massey, and Jonathan Murdoch. Massey has posited the notion of power-geometries to conceptualise that not only is space utterly imbued with and a product of relations of power, but power itself has a geography. It then identifies the ways relational space might inform ontological and methodological examinations of education policy. Relational space corresponds with a critical policy studies approach to investigating and analysing education policy. Studying education policy using ideas of relational space, this can mean taking an approach that sees policy as not only unfolding in designated spaces but also constitutes those spaces as part of the governing activity.
