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This introduction to the special issue on Working the Boundaries of Law provides a context for the papers collected here. It locates the papers in a colloquium held in Oñati to discuss issues around this theme. It traces the significance of borders and boundaries as sites of social practice and considers how the boundaries of law are constructed and contested. The introduction then explores the sorts of practices – or labour – that go on at these boundaries – to maintain, challenge and traverse them. It points in particular to boundaries as sites of translation and emotional labour. Finally, it briefly introduces the papers that follow. Esta introducción al número especial Working the Boundaries of Law proporciona un contexto para los artículos que forman el número. Ubica los artículos en un coloquio que tuvo lugar en Oñati para debatir asuntos relacionados con el tema principal. Rastrea el significado de los límites y las fronteras como lugares de práctica social, y considera cómo se construyen y se contestan los límites de la legalidad. Después, esta introducción explora el tipo de prácticas -o trabajos- que suceden en estos límites -para mantenerlos, desafiarlos y atravesarlos. En particular, apunta a los límites como lugares de conversión y de gestión de las emociones. Por último, presenta brevemente los artículos que siguen. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=3062565

School Inspection involves the construction and mobilisation of particular conceptions of knowledge, judgement and expertise. These constructions change over time and between different inspection regimes. In this paper we explore some of the shifting criteria and practices of inspection that have been visible in the recent development of school inspection in England as organised through the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). At stake in these processes are the shifting relationships between different types of knowledge (not least data and observation); the types of expertise and authority understood to be embodied in the inspector; and the forms of judgement that are exercised in inspection. In the work of Ofsted, these changing constructions and mobilisations of knowledge are also linked to the changing practices and criteria used in the evaluation of school performance: most dramatically the reclassification of the evaluation grade of ‘satisfactory’ to ‘requires improvement’. The paper explores the political and governmental pressures that drive changes in the construction and mobilisation of knowledge in school inspection and consider what new problems may arise as a consequence of such changes.

This article explores the significance of managerialism as a concept for thinking about projects of state reform across the last forty years. Making particular reference to the United Kingdom and its role in the proliferation of the New Public Management, the article suggests that managerialism (as an ideology) and managerialisation (as a process of transformation) combine to produce what we describe as a managerial state. In such a form of state, previous organizational arrangements and systems of power, authority and process based around a combination of bureaucracy and professionalism are reconfigured around managerial authority: theright to manage. Drawing on a conception of the dispersal of power in processes of state reform, we suggest that it is managerialism that gives both ideological and organizational coherence to the complex organizational landscapes that have emerged from state reform projects. Blurred boundaries, hybridized organizational forms, innovative governance arrangements and new apparatuses of accountability and evaluation arearticulated by the promises of greater managerial freedom and authority. The article concludes by speculating on what the turn to austerity in European politics might meanfor managerialism and the dispersal of state power.

Este artigo explora a importância do gerencialismo como um conceito para pensar sobre projetos de reforma do estado durante os últimos quarenta anos. Fazendo particular referência ao Reino Unido e seu papel na proliferação da Nova Gestão Pública, o artigo sugere que o gerencialismo (como ideologia) e a gerencialização (como um processo de transformação) se combinam para produzir o que descrevemos como um estado gerencial. Nesta forma de estado, arranjos organizacionais e sistemas de poder, autoridade e processo anteriores embasados em uma combinação de burocracia e profissionalismo são reconfigurados em torno da autoridade gerencial: o direito de gerir. Recorrendo a uma concepção da dispersão de poder em processos de reforma do estado, sugerimos que é o gerencialismo que fornece coerência tanto ideológica como organizacional aos cenários organizacionais complexos que emergiram de projetos de reforma do estado. Fronteiras borradas, formas organizacionais hibridizadas, arranjos de governança inovadores e novos aparelhos de responsabilização e avaliação são articulados pelas promessas de maior liberdade e autoridade gerencial. O artigo é concluído com a especulação sobre o que a volta à austeridade na política europeia poderia significar para o gerencialismo e a dispersão do poder do Estado.