Personalization,Personalized Learning and the Reform of Social Policy: The Prospect of Molecular Governance in the Digitized Society

Abstract

This article argues that personalized learning has emerged in the last decade as a special instance of a more generalized response to the problem of the reorganization of the State in response to globalization and the end of the effectiveness of the industrial mass production model in the delivery of public services. The article examines personalization as one of a number of strategies for overcoming the bureaucratic State and then provides a discussion of ‘mass customization’ as the discourse from which personalization emerged. Finally, there is an analysis of the policy discourse of personalization in the United Kingdom, including a focus on personalizing learning as the model of future public sector reform.