ABSTRACT
Public schools are historically understood as ‘non-market’ or located outside the purview of the market. This book explores contemporary tensions that are produced via the entanglement of public schooling within the economy. These tensions are played out via conflict points and consumption choices, the interplay between the social democratic collective and ‘education-as-individual-valueaccrual’ (Gerrard, 2015: 855). I will set out an argument around post-welfare policy conditions, as essentially hostile to traditional public schools – those schools historically distinguishable from private schools. Post-welfare policy conditions engender consistent pressure in rearticulating the public school in alignment with the market, producing tensions in serving the more historical conceptualizations of public schooling, coupled with contemporary profit-driven concerns. Conflict points are visible in global social movements and social activism around public education. This book examines social movements, collective organization and parental networks, to how more affluent choosers are engaging with the public school, and the consumption and economics of public schooling.
