Chapter 5: Governance by Spin: The Case of New Labour and Education Action Zones in England

The chapter draws on a three-year study¹ of the English Education Action Zones (EAZs) policy. This policy was one of a number of area-based initiatives introduced in England by the New Labour² Government in their first term of office (1997–2001). The initial Government publicity suggested that EAZs would be “standard bearers in a new crusade uniting business, schools, local education authorities³ and parents to modernize education in areas of social disadvantage” (DfEE, 1998). Allocated via a process of competitive bidding, twenty-five “first-round” EAZs were introduced between September 1998 and January 1999, followed by a further fortyeight “second-round” EAZs in the period September 1999 to April 2000. The zones, resourced by a combination of state and private funding, were established in a mixture of urban and rural locations. The policy was shortlived, however, and has since been eclipsed by other initiatives. The purpose of this chapter is not to provide an analysis or evaluation of the EAZ policy. Rather, we intend to use the case of EAZs to explore issues around the role of impression management in educational governance. In particular, the chapter is concerned with processes of governance which attempt to manage, contain or render invisible potential controversies that relate to policy development and implementation by impression management, or what has become known as “spin.”