ABSTRACT

This article asks what uniform practices in schools can tell us about how power functions through a comprehensive analysis of the uniform policies of all Scottish state secondary schools (n = 357). Against the backdrop of large-scale shifts from disciplinary societies to ones dominated by ‘neoliberal governmentality’ identified by Foucault and others, we investigate how these modes of power seem to be entangled in school uniform policies. The analysis reveals the specification of detailed uniform policies that both homogenise, divide and hierarchise the school body, suggesting that disciplinary techniques are alive and well. However, in the justifications that schools provide, we see uniform policies framed not as a tool to enforce discipline, but rather as a technique for pupils to fashion themselves into respectable and employable future adults. We suggest the rise of a ‘neoliberal governmentality’ has shaped how schools justify their practices of control more than it has shaped the practices themselves.

摘要

本文通过对所有苏格兰州立中学的统一政策的全面分析，询问学校的哪些统一做法可以告诉我们权力如何运作（n = 357）。在从纪律社会大规模转变为由福柯和其他人确定的“新自由主义治理”主导的社会的背景下，我们调查了这些权力模式似乎如何与校服政策纠缠在一起。分析揭示了详细的统一政策的规范，这些政策使学校机构同质化、分裂和等级化，这表明纪律技术仍然存在并且很好。然而，在学校提供的理由中，我们看到制服政策不是一种强制执行纪律的工具，而是一种让学生将自己塑造成受人尊敬和受雇的未来成年人的技巧。我们认为，“新自由主义治理术”的兴起塑造了学校如何证明其控制实践的合理性，而不是塑造了实践本身。