Mohanan, A; (2015) Governing through the network. Doctoral thesis , UCL (Univeristy College London).

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Abstract

This thesis examines the relationship between the state, computer networks and their relationship to the government of education. It explores the historical development of computer networks and the governmental rationalities of education, in addition to an ethnographic study of practices surrounding computer networks at a secondary school in London. This novel approach has looked at interactions between the materiality of networks, their presence in the discourses of national policies and the practices of its end users. It begins by focussing on an early public data network developed at the National Physical Laboratory called the NPL Network. This experimental network was built using the idea that networks had to be fexible and adaptable to the needs of its end users rather than the interests of computer manufacturers and network operators. It also looks at the effects that computer networks have had on governmental mechanisms used to regulate schools. The thesis argues that the introduction of the National Grid for Learning and the National Pupil Database have been used to intensify practices of performance management and intelligence testing. Finally, it looks at practices within schools that are afforded by networked forms of government. Broadly, the thesis problematises the idea that networked forms of governance are less coercive than the mechanisms they replace. The thesis demonstrates that networks have caused an intensification of power within the education system that has made its mechanisms more efficient whilst saturating its field of operation.

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