2. REVISIÓN BIBLIOGRÁFICA
2.6. Factores a considerar en la producción de forraje hidropónico
NIACE’s latest annual report describes the organisations values thus:
‘We believe that adult learning is essential, not only to create and maintain a more skilled and knowledgeable workforce, but also for personal development, and for building a democratic, just and informed society. We believe that people are excluded from learning because of unfair structures and policies, and we recognise the need to fight for equality of opportunity for all learners. In all our work, the key issue is ‘what does this mean for the adults most marginalised from society?’
(NIACE, 2005, p.5)
The document goes on to state that NIACE’s objectives include attempting ‘to improve opportunities to widen access to learning, especially for adults who have benefited least from previous education and training’. These values and objectives mean that NIACE engaging in the debates surrounding widening participation is central to the organisation’s mission. The make-up of NIACE’s membership, and the other organisations with which it has formed partnerships, reflect the interest of the organisation in both formal and informal learning that takes place in both traditional and non-traditional settings. The organisation’s interpretation of the role of learning as encompassing more than simply preparation for, and advancement
within, paid employment also means that its engagement in debates surrounding participation reflects issues of social inclusion/exclusion.
Before beginning this research project my understanding of NIACE’s work had been very much from the perspective of a practitioner. Whilst I was aware that NIACE did campaign on various policy issues, my experience of the organisation had been related to their role in promoting adult learning through various initiatives. Working in the adult and community education sector, often described as ‘the Cinderella sector’, you are constantly aware of the need to cut costs and make best use of the resources that are made available to you by various organisations. NIACE was one such organisation that supplied free promotional materials and opportunities to bid for small-scale funding as part of its ALW initiative. When I approached NIACE in the early stages of developing this research project I did so with the aim of gaining access to any archive material that they might have relating to the ALW initiative and with the hope of interviewing members of staff who had been involved in promoting the initiative. It wasn’t until I spent time looking through the archive material that I realised the extent to which NIACE was involved in research and advocacy work designed to influence the policy-making process. It was because of this dual perspective of the organisation – engaging both with the interests of practitioners and policy-makers – that I made the decision use the work of NIACE to frame my approach to data collection. This dual perspective, I believe, is what makes the organisation’s work an ideal setting for following Newman’s advice to explore the dynamics of the policy-making process.
Chapter Three: Foucauldian Genealogical Analysis
3.1 Introduction
In Chapter 2 I outlined the rationale and context for my project and detailed the issues I believe could be addressed through a project that adopts a Foucauldian genealogical approach. I have argued that by exploring the 'space for challenge' (Bacchi, 2000, p.55), we may gain a better understanding of the process of policy making and implementation. I have suggested that, in order to explore this space, a focus on the process of 'micromanipulation' (Miller, 1993, p.369) is essential in order to examine power relations at a level that recognises the detail of peoples lived experiences of social policy. I have argued that there is a danger that 'policy as discourse' analysis can focus too often on processes of 'macromanipulation' which tend to emphasise how policy is put to use by those conceptualised as ‘having’ power and on the effects of this process on those who are considered to be ‘lacking’ in power.
In Section 3.2 of this chapter I will examine in more depth the process of 'doing a genealogy', firstly by outlining Foucault's rationale for developing this approach and detailing the processes of analysis suggested by him, and secondly by relating these processes to my own research project. I will provide a general overview of the Foucauldian notions of archaeology and genealogy, placing a particular emphasis on how these two notions are linked and the role each can play in an analysis of policy formulation and implementation. I will discuss how by adopting a genealogical approach to this research project I believe I can engage with the issues outlined in Chapter 2 and summarised in the paragraphs above.
In Section 3.3 I will explore genealogical analysis in more detail. Drawing on the work of Andersen (2003), I will examine the process by which an archive is constructed, how the
statements, which are the building blocks of the discourse, are identified and how these statements can be analysed in order to establish the discursive formations to which they belong. I will then outline how a genealogical analysis of these discursive formations allows us to explore how they are shaped and transformed and how, through this analysis, possible 'spaces for challenge' can be identified. I will conclude this section by discussing how this approach to analysis relates to the research questions that this project seeks to explore.
Having discussed how genealogical analysis can inform the analysis of policy making and implementation, in Section 3.4 I will outline the implications of this approach in relation to the process of data collection and analysis. Using Foucault's notion of 'the general archive', I will consider how the genealogical approach has shaped my research project for the way in which the data was collected and analysed.
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