Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-207) and index.

A 'policy sociology' introduction to privatisation(s) : tools, meanings and positions -- Privatisation(s) in contexts -- Scale and scope : education is big business -- Economics and actors : the social relations of the ESI -- New governance, new communities, new philanthropy -- Selling improvement/selling policy/selling localities : an economy of innovation -- Policy controversies : failures, ethics and experiments -- Not jumping to conclusions.

"Drawing upon extensive documentary research and interviews with senior executives from the leading 'education services industry' companies, the author challenges preconceptions about privatisation. He concludes that blanket defence of the public sector as it was, over and against the inroads of privatisation, is untenable and that there is no going back to a past in which the public sector as a whole worked well and worked fairly in the interests of all learners, because there was no such past."--Jacket.