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Welfare and cohesion contested: A critical discourse analysis of New Labour's reform programme

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Abstract

Since the inception of Community Cohesion policy in 2001 and the ongoing welfare reform of the New Labour era, creating a cohesive, responsible and mutualist society has become an important goal for UK governments – something that is still partially true for the Coalition government thanks to their Big Society project. However, although New Labour intended to create such a society, their welfare and cohesion policies fell short of this goal. This is due, in part, to the creation and perpetuation of a number of discourses and discursive logics present in the policy literature and within British society as a whole. The article uses Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse a number of government documents on welfare reform and community cohesion between 2001 and 2010 to highlight the links between the spheres of cohesion and welfare, and to highlight how these linkages can shed new light on New Labour's political project. The article calls for a combined approach to understanding notions of cohesion, both academically and politically.

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK

    Matthew Donoghue

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Donoghue, M. Welfare and cohesion contested: A critical discourse analysis of New Labour's reform programme. Br Polit 8, 79–100 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/bp.2012.23

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