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Consultants and Capitalism: Knowledge Economies

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Consultants and Consultancy: the Case of Education

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

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Abstract

This chapter focuses on the economisation of professional practice through privatised contractual exchange relationships. We draw on empirical work that we have undertaken as well as our reading into global shifts. Our evidence is drawn from schooling, though we link these shifts to wider processes of the ‘commodification’ of knowledge, and to the shifting relationships between such knowledge and the state. Our key argument in this chapter is that global processes of privatisation shift the patterns of professional practice and add complexity to the differences and distinctions between ‘values’ and value’. Data from our recent studies into the burgeoning consultancy in English schooling is drawn on so as to convey some of the ‘lived experiences’ of corporatisation. We discuss critically some aspects of this ‘creeping commercialism’ and the retailing of policy solutions. We clearly identify the key changes that are identified as constituting corporatism: changes in structures; in funding; and the increased prominence of private interests, as well as the relocation of public matters to private agendas.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Helen M. Gunter & Colin Mills

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  1. Helen M. Gunter
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  2. Colin Mills
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Gunter, H.M., Mills, C. (2017). Consultants and Capitalism: Knowledge Economies. 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_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48879-0_7

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