Quality, Economic Reason and State Classification: A Rhetorical Political Analysis

本研究建议提出了一个详细的研究“质量”的政治，在英格兰和威尔士的公共教育的情况下。自20世纪80年代末以来，质量一直是公共政策中普遍存在和占主导地位的概念，但尽管如此，关于这一主题的批评性学术文献相对较少。本文认为，“素质”是一个意识形态概念，是一个被彻底规范化、自然化、制度化的概念。这个项目的主要目的是检验这种解释的真实性，并检验这种过程是否、如何以及为什么发生。如果对质量的最佳理解是一个概念，它是争论和正常化进程的产物，那么这些进程就应该成为政治分析的对象。因此，这里提出的研究被概念化为解释性政治分析的研究，特别是修辞性政治分析，这种视角使分析“常识是如何构成和改变的”成为一个研究问题，而不是“未经检验的和基础性的给定”（Finlayson 2007：560）。从这些理论基础出发，研究建议提出了生成研究的核心问题。首先，考察素质的思想政治渊源，以及政治行动者如何以及为什么对素质概念进行了历史性的界定和建构。然而，研究的另一个重要方面将涉及集体利益和国家结构之间的关系。因此，计划研究的理论范围是广泛的;有人认为，质量必须在国家，竞争的集体利益和政治权力的背景下理解。此外，任何理解质量的重大尝试都需要谱系因素;初步研究表明，“质量”只是国家结构内经济推理的最新表现，并且可以追溯到科学管理和效率运动的根源二十世纪初。平衡和解决解释性方法和结构性方法之间的紧张关系将是该项目的一项关键理论任务。虽然这样的理论工作是具有挑战性的，这两个理论要素绝不是不相容的，在危机时期的话语转变的研究将使国家重组的关键时刻的调查。这种方法隐含的观点是，好的政治分析需要能够穿透由质量构成的“规范的普遍统治”的理论方法（福柯，1977）。这与一位著名的政治学家的方法形成对比，他认为，事实上，好的政治分析只是常识，因为它“经常是一种陈述和重申显而易见但很少反思的情况”（Hay 2002：129）。对这种立场的成功批评在理论上具有挑战性，但也需要方法上的严谨。本研究将主要通过构建和分析大量文本材料的方式来解决核心研究问题，这些文本材料来自1902年至2016年期间的官方文件。将使用文本挖掘软件和迭代近距离阅读技术对数据进行定性分析。这些来源还将有助于获得定量数据，从而能够进行网络和对应分析。此外，还可能有机会采访1990年代初参与制定质量政策的关键人员，以补充这些资料来源。通过这种方式，研究将促进对代表质量的主张进行批判性分析，并回答对理解集体利益，国家结构和公共政策之间关系至关重要的问题。

This research proposal sets out the case for a detailed study of the politics of 'quality', using the case of public education in England and Wales. Quality has been a pervasive and dominant concept in public policy since the late 1980s, yet despite this there is relatively little critical academic literature on the topic. This research is premised on the notion that a good part of the explanation lies in the fact that 'quality' is an ideological concept, in the sense that it has been thoroughly normalized, naturalized and institutionalized. The chief aim of this project is to examine the veracity of such an explanation and to examine if, how and why such processes have occurred. If quality is best understood as a concept that is the product of argument and processes of normalization, it is these very processes that should be the object of political analysis. The research proposed here is therefore conceptualized as a study in interpretive political analysis, in particular, rhetorical political analysis, a perspective which makes the analysis of how "commonsense is constituted and altered" a matter for research rather than "an unexamined and foundational given" (Finlayson 2007:560). From these theoretical underpinnings the research proposal sets out a core of generative research questions. These are centered firstly, on investigating the ideological and political provenances of quality, and how and why political actors have defined and constructed the concept rhetorically. However, an important further aspect of the research will be concerned with the relationship between collective interests and state structures. The theoretical scope of the planned research is therefore broad; it is contended that quality has to be understood in the contexts of the state, competing collective interests and political power. Any significant attempt to understand quality, moreover, requires a genealogical element; preliminary research indicates that 'quality' is simply the most recent manifestation of economic reasoning at work within state structures, and can be traced back to roots in scientific management and the efficiency movement at the beginning of the twentieth century. Balancing and resolving the tensions between interpretive and structural approaches will be a key theoretical task in this project. While such theoretical work is challenging, these two theoretical elements are by no means incompatible and the study of discursive shifts at periods of crises will enable investigation of key moments of state re-structuring. Implicit in this approach is the view that good political analysis requires theoretical approaches capable of penetrating the 'universal reign of the normative' constituted by quality (Foucault 1977). This is in contrast to the approach of one prominent political scientist, who suggests that in fact good political analysis is simply common sense, since it is, "often a case of stating and re-stating that which is obvious but all too rarely reflected on" (Hay 2002:129). Successful criticism of such a position is theoretically challenging, but it also requires methodological rigour. This research will address the core research questions primarily by way of the construction and analysis of a large corpus of textual material, drawn from official documents covering a period from 1902 to 2016. Data will be qualitatively analysed using text mining software and iterative close reading techniques. The sources will also enable the derivation of quantitative data, enabling network and correspondence analysis. There may also be the opportunity to augment these sources with interviews with key personnel involved in developing policy on quality in the early 1990s. In this way, the research will facilitate critical analysis of the claims made on behalf of quality and generate answers to questions central to an understanding of the relationships between collective interests, state structures and public policy.