The governance of educational inequalities: The limits of area-based initiatives

This paper examines the background, assumptions and impact of the current fashion for area-based initiatives (ABIs). Since coming to power in 1997, New Labour has increasingly sought to tackle education and other inequalities in the UK through distributing resources on an area basis. Although at first sight the policy of targeting resources at the most deprived areas appears to offer a straightforward means of redistributing welfare, it can be deeply problematic. This paper explores the spatial dimension of educational administration and the underlying principles of ABIs in the UK. It argues that they are based on overly simplistic conceptualizations of the geography of inequality. The analysis exposes the inadequate theorization of the processes which generate educational (and other) inequalities and the limited repertoire of the state in redressing them.