Consultants and consultancy in education

Abstract

This introductory chapter locates the book within education policy scholarship defined as a critical and theoretically eclectic mode of enquiry, seeking to locate the people and practices focussed on in wider historical, sociological and political contexts. Outlining some of our ‘thinking tools’, especially our drawing upon Bourdieu and Bernstein, we anchor the work within the conceptualisation of the ‘4Cs’. Consultants, consulting, consultation and consultancy are deployed to trace the structure of the book’s arguments. Connections are made to theories of government and governance to identify the underpinning of our arguments. These are centred on relationships between knowledge production and exchange, knowledge actors, and their location within the workings of the state. Our descriptions and analyses draw on our research which has focused on knowledge exchange and client relationships within diverse arenas. A strong case is made for the development of conceptual and theoretical resources in order for others to continue the ‘mapping’ and analyses of these novel power processes and re-formations of the state, public policy and knowledge production.