ABSTRACT
In this chapter it is argued that the transformation from pre-modern to modern times was characterised by the paradoxical relationship between the individual and society and the ‘problem’ of social order. Resolution of that problem was sought in a rationalist model of the social world in which a natural order of progress unfolded through the assimilation of difference within a homogeneous society. It is argued that it is within the ideological framework of this dominant rationalist conception of order that the growth of the eugenics movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries can best be understood. It is further argued that there is continuity between the pre-war eugenics movement and the post-war reforms aimed at social inclusion and the treatment and rehabilitation of those who are different. This continuity lies in part in a social compromise that limited the radical impact of the reform movement but also in the ideology of a rational order based upon a highly differentiated social inclusivity. This hegemony was only seriously challenged with the collapse of the post-war compromise in the 1980s which ushered in a radical break with the past. The fragmentation of order and the decline of civil society not only created the diversity of individualism but also required it. From that point on, social and educational policy were no longer concerned with compensation and assimilation but concerned instead with the policing of moral boundaries and risk management.1
