ABSTRACT
The need, generated by modern forms of economic and social organization, for a centralized system of control and discipline for the young has increasingly led to the state playing an important role in childcare. This centralization of child-care responsibilities is directly mirrored in the growth of professional groups expressing a claim to expert knowledge in respect of children’s needs. From psychologists to speech therapists, from educational social workers to teachers of English as a second language, the application of expert knowledge to the care and control of children has been a major phenomenon of the twentieth century. Yet the diversity of professional claims to child-care responsibilities belies a picture of state intervention drawn solely in terms of an homogeneous system of state control.
