The focus of this book is on ongoing and related changes in education policy, policy networks and governance in England; in particular, the increasing participation of philanthropy and business in policy and service delivery. In this chapter we will sketch out the conceptual terrain across which our analysis moves and introduce some of the key ideas that we draw upon and deploy later. However, this is neither an exhaustive review of the literatures on policy networks and network governance nor an attempt to engage in the arcane and internecine debates and struggles with which the governance research literature is riven. Rather, we will outline a position that we take up in relation to this literature and its disputes, as seems constructive to understanding what is currently going on in English education policy. Our focus is substantive and analytical. We are interested in exploring how educational governance is being done and by whom. We are interested in this as indicative and illustrative of what seem to be more general shifts and changes in governance methods and mechanisms. We also consider some of the effects and consequences of these changes, but that is not our primary purpose here. The book draws on research that was focused particularly on the roles of philanthropy and businesses in education policy, and these have become increasingly significant and topical in current education and social policy. We will return to a discussion of some of the general issues of governance in the final chapter.

What to read first?

This chapter focuses on issues of governance theory and network method and their relationship. We begin by introducing the contrast and move between government and governance, which has been used extensively in recent political science to address changes in the form and modalities of the state, and we identify some key features of what is called network governance. This involves a discussion of some rather slippery, confusing and contested concepts. Specifically, we begin to explore the ‘work’ of network governance that is done in the social relations and exchanges within policy networks – those communities of social actors and organisations concerned with and engaged in policy conversations, policy influence and service delivery in the public sector.