Built policy

School-building and architecture as policy instrument

Bibliographic Data

ID11488481
AuthorsAdam Wood (0000-0002-6983-6784, Monash University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume35
Issue4
Pages465-484
Publication date2020-07-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Education Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0268-0939 • E-ISSN: 1464-5106
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02680939.2019.1578901
OpenAlexW2918014806
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited39

School architecture is often taken for granted both in use (where it is naturalized) and in writing on education policy (tending to feature simply as policy setting.) Built policy instead points up the active and ongoing role of the material environment in shaping education. From financing and procurement to the design of individual classrooms, the paper works across architecture, sociology and policy studies to clarify the relationship between different dimensions of physical and social space and so provide a useful theoretical ground for future work. What is special about school-building and architecture that enables them to do policy? How are they used to do it? By whom? From city planners to students, a range of actors use different space-organizing resources to attempt the instantiation of (and challenges to) policy in built form. These processes are explored first theoretically, then empirically through a new Academy school in England. The paper deepens understanding of what policy is, emphasizing its intimate if taken for granted spatial characteristics, its ongoing-ness in built form and its travel by means of circulating images of buildings and spaces

Architectural engineering · Built environment · Civil engineering · Economics · Education policy · Higher education · Management · Policy analysis · Political science · Procurement · Public policy · Public relations · Sociology · Work (physics · Computer Science · Educational Environments and Student Outcomes · Engineering · Global Educational Policies and Reforms · Law · Public Administration · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies · Architecture