Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Consultants and Clients: Knowledge Regimes

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Consultants and Consultancy: the Case of Education

Part of the book series: Educational Governance Research ((EGTU,volume 4))

  • 899 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter presents a conceptualisation of ‘knowledge regimes’ to analyse the processes of power concerning ‘the who’ and the ‘why’ of the 4Cs during the rest of the book. First, consultants are positioned, and position themselves to be, ‘in the know’. This ‘knowingness’ is always located within wider contexts. Our particular focus on the 4Cs is on how, and in what ways, their knowledge is connected with matters of public policy and with capitalism. Second, our core argument concerns the modes and the power processes in knowledge production within the 4Cs. Our work involves investigating how the construction of public policies is intertwined with these ‘knowings’. Importantly, this book reveals some of the ‘close to practice activities’ that are affected by certain kinds of knowledge and its transmission and distributions. In the closing pages of this chapter we illustrate our construction of the conceptual framework of regimes of practice and we add to our analysis in illustrating how the consultancy we describe in the rest of the book is concerned with forms of practice and power.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Anderson, G. L., & Donchik, L. M. (2016). Privatising schooling and policymaking: The American legislative exchange council and new political and discursive strategies of education governance. Educational Policy, 30(2), 322–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Apple, M. W. (2000). Mathematics reform through conservative modernization: Standards, markets and inequality in education. In J. Boaler (Ed.), Multiple perspectives in mathematics teaching (pp. 243–260). Greenwood: Westport.

    Google Scholar 

  • Apple, M. W. (2006a). Educating the ‘Right’ way. New York: RoutlegeFalmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnaboldi, M. (2013). Consultant-researchers in public sector transformation: An evolving role. Financial Accountability & Management, 29(2), 140–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bache, I. (2003). Governing through governance: Education policy control under New Labour. Political Studies, 51, 300–314.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. J. (1995). Intellectuals or technicians? Urgent role of theory in educational studies. British Journal of Educational Studies, 43(3), 255–271.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. J. (2009a). Privatising education, privatizing education policy, privatizing educational research: Network governance and the ‘competition state’. Journal of Education Policy, 24(1), 83–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, S. J., & Youdell, D. (2007). Hidden privatisation in public education. Brussels: Education International.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, M. (1996a). The learning game, arguments for a learning revolution. London: Victor Gollancz.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barber, M. (2007). Instruction to deliver. London: Politico’s Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, B. (1975a). Class, codes and control, volume 1: Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, B. (1975b). Class, codes and control: Volume 3 – Towards a theory of educational transmissions. London: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bernstein, B. (2000). Pedagogy, symbolic control and identity: Theory, research, critique. Oxford: Rowman and Littlefield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bevir, M. (2011). Governance and governmentality after neoliberalism. Policy & Politics, 39(4), 457–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1990a). In other words. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (1990b). The logic of practice. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. (2000). Pascalian meditations. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campagnolo, G. M. (2013). The evolution of client-consultant relationships: A situational analysis of IT consultancy in the public sector. Financial Accountability & Management, 29(2), 161–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska, B., & Mazza, C. (2013). Consulting university: A reflection from inside. Financial Accountability & Management, 29(2), 124–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J. S. (2011). Challenging governance theory: From networks to Hegemony. Bristol: Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J. S. (2014a). Contesting governance hegemonies: Developments in critical theory and practice. Critical Policy Studies, 8(1), 1–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies, J. S. (2014b). Contesting governance hegemonies: Developments in critical theory and practice, Part 2. Critical Policy Studies, 8(2), 129–132.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunleavy, P., Margetts, H., Bastow, S., & Tinkler, J. (2006). New public management is dead – Long live digital-era governance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 16(3), 467–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gewirtz, S. (2002). The managerial school. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gove, M. (2013, March 23). I refuse to surrender to the Marxist teachers hell-bent on destroying our schools: Education Secretary berates ‘the new enemies of promise’ for opposing his plans. Mail Online. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2298146/I-refuse-surrender-Marxist-teachers-hell-bent-destroying-schools-Education-Secretary-berates-new-enemies-promise-opposing-plans.html. Accessed 23 Mar 2016.

  • Grundmann, R., & Stehr, N. (2012). The power of scientific knowledge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gunter, H. M. (2012a). Leadership and the reform of education. Bristol: The Policy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunter, H. M. (2012b). Academic work and performance. In T. Fitzgerald, J. White, & H. M. Gunter (Eds.), Hard labour? Academic work and the changing landscape of higher education (pp. 65–85). Bingley: Emerald.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Gunter, H. M. (2016). An intellectual history of school leadership practice and research. London: Bloomsbury Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gunter, H. M., & Forrester, G. (2009). Institutionalised governance: The case of the National College for school leadership. International Journal of Public Administration, 32(5), 349–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gunter, H. M., & Mills, C. (2016). Knowledge production and the rise of consultocracy in education policymaking in England. In A. Verger, G. Steiner-Khamsi, & C. Lubienski (Eds.), World yearbook of education 2016: The global education industry (pp. 125–141). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harding, A. (2000). Regime formation in Manchester and Edinburgh. In G. Stoker (Ed.), The new politics of British local governance (pp. 54–71). Basingstoke: MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harker, R., & May, S. (1993). Code and habitus: Comparing the accounts of Bernstein and Bourdieu. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 14(2), 169–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hodgson, P. (2006). The rise and rise of the regulatory state. The Political Quarterly, 77(2), 247–254.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, A., Sellar, S., & Lingard, B. (2016). Commercialising comparison: Pearson puts the TLC in soft capitalism. Journal of Education Policy, 31(3), 243–258.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holliday, I. (2000). Is the British state hollowing out? The Political Quarterly, 71(2), 167–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hood, C. (1990). De-Sir Humphreyfying the Westminster model of bureaucracy: A new style of governance? Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, 3(2), 205–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hyman, P. (2005). One out of ten, from downing street vision to classroom reality. London: Vintage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klees, S. J., Samoff, J., & Stromquist, N. P. (Eds.). (2012). The World Bank and education. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lapsley, I., Miller, P., & Pollock, N. (2013). Foreword. Management consultants – Demons or benign change agents? Financial Accountability & Management, 29(2), 117–123.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone, D. N. (2007). Science, site and speech: Scientific knowledge and the spaces of rhetoric. History of the Human Sciences, 20(2), 71–98.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCann, E., & Ward, K. (2012). Policy assemblages, mobilities and mutations: Toward a multi-disciplinary conservation. Political Studies Review, 10, 325–332.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. (2015a). Special issue. Consultants, brokers, experts: Knowledge actors and knowledge exchange and flows in educational administration. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(3), 209–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mills, C. (2015b). ‘Consultants, brokers, experts’: Knowledge actors and knowledge exchange and flows in educational administration. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 47(3), 209–213.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moran, M. (2003). The British regulatory state. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Neave, G. (1988). On the cultivation of quality, efficiency and enterprise: An overview of recent trends in higher education in Western Europe 1986–1988. European Journal of Education, 23(1/2), 7–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, J. (2001). Modernising Governance, New Labour, policy and society. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, J. (2014). Governing the present: Activism, neoliberalism, and the problem of power and consent. Critical Policy Studies, 8(2), 133–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Newman, J., & Clarke, J. (2009). Publics, politics and power: Remaking the public in public services. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollitt, C. (2007). New Labour’s re-disorganization. Public Management Review, 9(4), 529–543.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Radaelli, C. M. (1995). The role of knowledge in the policy process. Journal of European Public Policy, 2(2), 159–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rawolle, S., Rowlands, J., & Blackmore, J. (2015). The implications of contractualism for the responsibilisation of higher education. Discourse. doi:10.1080/01596306.2015.1104856.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saltman, K. J. (2010). The gift of education. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Saltman, K. J. (2012). The failure of corporate school reform. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Souto-Otero, M. (Ed.). (2015). Evaluating European education policy-making. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spring, J. (2012). Education networks. Power, wealth, cyberspace, and the digital mind. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spring, J. (2014). Political agendas for education. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stone, D. (2008). Global public policy, transnational policy communities and their networks. The Policy Studies Journal, 36(1), 19–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sturdy, A., Handley, K., Clark, T., & Fincham, R. (2009). Management consultancy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Suddaby, R., & Greenwood, R. (2001). Colonizing knowledge: Commodification as a dynamic of jurisdictional expansion in professional service firms. Human Relations, 54(7), 933–953.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thrift, N. (2005). Knowing capitalism. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walford, G. (2013). Privatisation, education and social justice: Introduction. Oxford Review of Education, 39(4), 421–425.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Young, M. F. D. (2008). Bringing knowledge back in. Abingdon: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Helen M. Gunter & Colin Mills

Authors
  1. Helen M. Gunter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Colin Mills
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Gunter, H.M., Mills, C. (2017). Consultants and Clients: Knowledge Regimes. In: Consultants and Consultancy: the Case of Education. Educational Governance Research, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48879-0_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48879-0_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-48877-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-48879-0

  • eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation