Professional Service Firms and Politics in a Global Era

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.

Auteur

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.

Contenu

1. Introduction: The rise of professional service firms as public policy actors

Chris Hurl (Concordia University, Canada) and Anne Vogelpohl (Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany)

Section One: Strategies and practices of professional service firms

2. America First: How consultants got into the public sector

Matthias Kipping (York University, Canada)

3. Taming uncertainty: Climate policymaking and the spatial politics of privatized advice

Svenja Keele (University of Melbourne, Australia) Section Two: Advising cities

4. Who drives India's smart cities? Understanding the role of consulting firms in the Smart Cities Mission

Uttara Purandare (IIT Bombay-Monash University Research Academy)

5. Boutique consultancy and personal trust: Advising on cities in Moscow

Daria Volkova (Higher School of Economics, Moscow)

6. Everywhere from Copenhagen: Method, storytelling, and comparison in the globalization of public space design

Eugene McCann (Simon Fraser University) and Lise Mahieus (Simon Fraser University)

Section Three: Finance and financialization

7. International consultancy firms and African states: New Debt Bonds

Janet Roitman (New School for Social Research, USA)

8. 'The DNA of Government': Professional Service Firms, calculative technologies and the politics of municipal benchmarking Chris Hurl (Concordia University)

9. Connecting local government with global finance: Professional service firms as agents of financialization

Sebastian Möller (University of Bremen, Germany)

Section Four: Privatization and public private partnerships

10. 'Infrastructure' and the Big 4: Public-private partnerships, corridors, and the expansion of capital

Nick Hildyard (Corner House, UK)

11. The corporate takeover of public policy: The case of public private partnerships in Britain

Jean Shaoul (University of Manchester, UK)

12. Camouflaged privatization: The influence of the Fratzscher Commission and PricewaterhouseCoopers on Berlin's schools

Laura Valentukeviciute (Gemeingut in Bürger*innenhand, Germany)

Section Five: Professional service firms and administration: Entrenching private expertise 13. Hegemonic privatization and its discontents: Reflections on the statecraft of contract-based local governance in England

Mike Raco (University College London, UK)

14. Expert advice? Assessing the role of the state in promoting privatized planning

Neha Sami (Indian Institute for Human Settlements) and Shriya Anand (Indian Institute for Human Settlements)

Section Six: Regulating relationships

15. Conflicting interests: Professional planning practice in publicly-traded firms

Orly Linovski (University of Manitoba)

16. The governance of management consultancy use: Practices, problems and possibilities

Andrew Sturdy (University of Bristol, UK)