Introduction

Abstract

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides the theoretical building blocks of privatisation and traces its development across four decades. It explores the contested term ‘privatisation’ and proposes the adoption of a multi-modal framework for analysis that encapsulates the wide range of sector specific variants. The book discusses how, despite claims to the contrary whilst in opposition, privatisation emerged as an accepted aspect of the party’s political agenda. It also discusses the key themes of: globalisation, neoliberalism, risk, responsibilisation and securitisation; development of the United States as the penal workshop of the world; and the transfer of penal policy ideas and products to the United Kingdom. The book also explores how the Probation Service was vulnerable to the vagaries of successive governments’ forays into privatisation and in a series of incremental changes, including increasing outsourcing of peripheral services, softened up for selling off to the private sector.

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ORCID for Christopher Hamerton: orcid.org/0000-0001-6300-2378

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