ABSTRACT
Using G. Deleuze’s work with control societies, Julie Allan and Deborah Youdell theorise the UK government’s new approach to special educational needs and disability as ‘emergent modulations of the societies of control’. One senses that the focus of the collection on the twin themes of responsibility and responsibilisation has been deliberately seditious: to disrupt the universalisation of responsibilisation as a practice and universal characterisation of education. In the new market environment, the figure of the entrepreneur becomes paramount in understanding the rise of a new individualism that strips away all collective value and responsibilises individuals to take care of themselves through enhanced choice-making in the market place. The concept of ‘responsibilisation’ originally emerged out of the context of so-called Governmentality Studies. Responsibilisation thus functions as a technique for the self-management and self-regulation of social risks such as illness, unemployment, and poverty.
