Professional Service Firms and Politics in a Global Era
Public Policy, Private Expertise
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Beschreibung
This volume explores the influence of professional service firms on public policy-making from a global perspective. Drawing on cases studies from around the world, researchers from different disciplines—including sociology, political science, geography, anthropology, history, and management studies—examine how professional service firms have generated power in the policy-making process. The chapters further investigate the structure and organization of these firms and their relationship with public agencies. They discuss the impact of strategies, techniques and models promoted by these firms on political decision-making. And they analyze how these firms have contributed to the formation of global policy-pipelines, facilitating the quick diffusion of policy ideas across time and space. Exposing how professional advisors can undermine democratic decision-making, the chapters in this book explore the potential for resistance and regulation of public-private relationships.
Chris Hurl is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. His research investigates urban governance, state formation, and the politics of the public sector in Canada.
Anne Vogelpohl is a Geographer and holds a Professorship for Social Sciences at HAW Hamburg, Germany. She investigates contradictions between expertise and participation and between global politics and urban everyday life.
This volume explores the influence of professional service firms on public policy-making from a global perspective. Drawing on cases studies from around the world, researchers from different disciplines—including sociology, political science, geography, anthropology, history, and management studies—examine how professional service firms have generated power in the policy-making process. The chapters further investigate the structure and organization of these firms and their relationship with public agencies. They discuss the impact of strategies, techniques and models promoted by these firms on political decision-making. And they analyze how these firms have contributed to the formation of global policy-pipelines, facilitating the quick diffusion of policy ideas across time and space. Exposing how professional advisors can undermine democratic decision-making, the chapters in this book explore the potential for resistance and regulation of public-private relationships.
Reveals how the growing influence of professional service firms has: reduced democratic governance and accountability, transformed public programs into privately managed assets, led to less equitable forms of service delivery, and facilitated new forms of tax avoidance Brings together the work of leading researchers from the fields of sociology, political science, geography, anthropology, urban studies, and critical management Documents the opposition and resistance to professional service firms and the construction of alternatives
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Chris Hurl
Themen in »Professional Service Firms and Politics in a Global Era«
Professional Service Firms (PSFs) Globalization Policy mobilities Privatization Consulting Neoliberalism public policy actors policymaking climate consulting professional services Smart Cities Mission international consultancy placemaking Municipal Reference Model public-private partnerships
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“This is a wide-ranging and refreshingly interdisciplinary collection on a topic that tends to fall through the cracks in social science scholarship: transnational private expertise in the regulation of national public life. The book synthesizes a broad set of examples to illuminate the growing influence of professional service firms on public policy processes. It is of great value to scholars interested in the production of governance expertise internationally.”
—Merje Kuus, Professor of Geography, University of British Columbia, Canada
“Professional service firms’ growing influence over public policymaking has become a defining feature of our times, producing new forms of governance and a global parastate ‘consultocracy’, yet this phenomenon remains poorly studied. This fascinating book opens up a valuable research agenda for understanding these firms, their role in policy processes and democratic decision-making. It deserves to be read by anyone worried about the commodification of expert knowledge, and even more by those who are not.”
—Cris Shore, Professor of Anthropology, Goldsmiths University of London, UK
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