(PSM5) Author meets Critics: Hurl, C. and Werner, L.B. (Forthcoming). The Consulting Trap: How Professional Service Firms Hook Governments and Undermine Democracy

The session will discuss Hurl and Werner’s forthcoming book, The Consulting Trap: How Professional Service Firms Hook Governments and Undermine Democracy. The book explores how governments have come to depend on consultancy firms for policy advice and service delivery. Drawing on case studies from Canada and around the world, Hurl and Werner investigate how big consultancies leverage social networks, institutionalize relationships, mine and commodify data, and establish policy pipelines that facilitate the quick diffusion of ideas across jurisdictions. It also offers strategies for how these powerful firms can be resisted using people’s audits, public consultations, access to information requests, and social network analyses.

This session is co-sponsored by the Society for Socialist Studies.

Panelists:

• Chris Hurl, Concordia University
• Leah B Werner, Concordia University
• William Carroll, University of Victoria
• Heather Whiteside, University of Waterloo

 

Tags: Knowledge, Networks, Policy, Politics

Organizer: William Carroll, University of Victoria