'Implementing the Prevent duty: Conceptualisation of threat within Greater Manchester’s Further Education Sector’ - Dr Natalie James

‘Implementing the Prevent duty: Conceptualisation of threat within Greater Manchester’s Further Education Sector’

This online seminar was presented by Postgraduate Researcher Natalie James as part of the research seminar series hosted by the School of Politics and International Studies. You can watch a recording of the seminar in the video below.

Abstract:
This seminar will offer an overview of the findings of my PhD thesis which analysed experiences of the UK’s counter-terrorism policy, the Prevent duty. The research sought to understand how threat became conceptualised through everyday acts of countering terrorism within the further education (FE) sector. In the seminar, I will demonstrate how four key narratives emerged through experiences of policy elites, educationalists and their students, and critically engage with the moments of conflict and ambiguity which simultaneously surrounded them. I will argue, in reflection of the findings, that in threat becoming conceptualised at a vernacular level, such discursive constructions were fluid and fluctuating in response to the limitations and challenges faced by actors during their implementation. More specifically, I posit that whilst educationalists were able to enact the policy, they were simultaneously bound by two key elements: wider public narratives of prejudice and the governance processes of Ofsted.