RIS ID
15440
Abstract
ABSTRACT: This research focuses on New South Wales’ process of deinstitutionalisation using a Foucauldian lens. By using this filtering process, this research aims to highlight the interchange between the concepts of power and knowledge as two vital and interrelated forces. These forces are seen as dominant forces within the process of deinstitutionalisation in New South Wales. The introduction of the policy of deinstitutionalisation is found to have highlighted the need for accounting and financial information to be distanced from the economic rationalist calculus in order that better policy decisions are made. The case study further explores some of the societal difficulties inherent in using such rationalist calculus (biased towards quantified, monetary, accounting entity assumptions) as a means of evaluating social policies.
Publication Details
This conference paper was originally published as Smark, CJ, & Deo, H, Social and Historical Power Plays: A Foucauldian Gaze on Mental Institutions, College of Business Symposium, UWS, 7-8th November, 2006.