Chris Hurl
Biographic Data
| ID | 3720890 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chris Hurl |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chris |
| FAMILY NAME | Hurl |
| SIGNATURE | HURL C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Concordia University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 31 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Comprendre le pouvoir des grands cabinets de conseil dans l’élaboration de l’action publique en tant que fournisseurs de professionnels et d’infrastructures
Le pouvoir des grands cabinets de conseil sur les organismes publics ne tient pas seulement à la mobilisation de leurs réseaux et de leur capital social. Une part grandissante de leur pouvoir relève du « courtage », fondé sur leur capacité à exploiter leur contrôle sur les autres ressources professionnelles comme porte d’entrée vers les contrats de conseil. Une autre repose sur l’infrastructure, c’est-à-dire sur leur contrôle des systèmes technic…
Building walls within walls: Making value defensible in Public Private Partnerships
Despite widespread criticisms, governments around the world have adopted Value for Money (VfM) analysis as a key metric in gauging the prospective value of infrastructure projects. This paper examines the institutional processes through which VfM is rendered defensible as a form of valuation. Drawing on a case study of Infrastructure Ontario in Canada, the paper demonstrates that this involves strategies for partitioning space and time, including…
Pandemic consulting. How private consultants leverage public crisis management
This forum article discusses how the Covid19-pandemic as a major public crisis is transforming the relationship between governments and management consultants, contributing to the deepening presence of consulting firms in policy-making and governance. It shows how the crisis has entrenched private advice in public policymaking as governments are spending millions of dollars on transnational professional service firms like McKinsey, KPMG, Deloitte…
Elite networks in public private partnerships: Mapping the enabling field in Ontario
This paper explores the role of elite networks in brokering Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Ontario, Canada. Drawing from the notion of the “PPP enabling field,” we explore how PPPs are fostered by a broad constellation of public and private organizations, all of which work together to establish and legitimize PPPs as an infrastructure procurement model in Canada
A Militancy of Invidious Comparisons
This article examines the efforts to establish objective criteria in deciding on appropriate wage levels for non-professional service workers in Ontario's hospital sector during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing from recent literature in cultural political economy and the politics of valuation, it shows how industrial relations specialists sought to reframe the field of struggle through the practice of interest arbitration. Through a comparative study…
Accounting from below: Activists confront outsourcing in a London borough
Drawing on a case study of Barnet, an outer borough of London (UK), this article discusses the challenges that activists face in making sense of local government in the neoliberal era. With the aim of making things more ‘direct’, ‘open’, and ‘streamlined,’ the borough’s council decided in 2008 to outsource the bulk of its services in two large contracts to the professional service firm Capita Plc. However, contrary to the image of institutional t…
Remembering George W. Smith’s “Life Work”: From Politico-Administrative Regimes to Living Otherwise
This article revisits activist ethnographer George W. Smith’s intellectual and political legacy, with a focus on his engagement with and conception of “life work.” In the context of the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Smith contributed to reframing the way in which AIDS was problematized and confronted. Rather than treating people living with HIV/AIDS as “disease vectors” to be isolated from the general population, as had been the …
Operationalizing austerity: The role of transnational professional service firms in local government restructuring
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the “Big Four” professional service firms (KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Ernst and Young) have aggressively targeted the public sector with the aim of expanding their market in management consulting. As a part of these efforts, they have packaged and promoted service delivery reviews to local governments, offering consultations with the aim of identifying areas where savings can be accrued and services streamlined. Taking u…
(Dis)Assembling policy pipelines: Unpacking the Work of Management Consultants at Public Meetings
Confronting growing fiscal deficits in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, local governments around the world have often commissioned outside experts – such as policy gurus, management consultants, and transnational professional service firms – to undertake services delivery reviews as a means of making tough decisions, identifying the areas of government spending that are most expendable and setting priorities for cutbacks. This paper draws fr…
From Scavengers to Sanitation Workers: Practices of Purification and the Making of Civic Employees in Toronto, 1890-1920
In confronting the filth and decay of the early 20th century city, civic reformers often undertook ambitious programs that sought to not only eliminate the sources of disease from the urban environment but also to civilize urban dwellers, teaching them to live in pure and morally hygienic ways. Historical studies have tended to focus on the consumption side of this process, looking at how sanitary reformers and public health officials worked to e…
Local government, the Standard Employment Relationship, and the making of Ontario's public sector, 1945-1963
This article examines the unionization of local government workers in Ontario during the 1940s and 1950s. While these workers played a central role in consolidating a standard employment relationship across the public sector, the advancement of collective bargaining rights, regular hours of work, and wages and benefits was fractured and spatially uneven. Bringing together theories of state formation with recent debates in labour geography, this a…
Building The New Canadian Political Economy
Since the late 1960s, the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) has played an important role in shaping the trajectory of the social sciences in Canada and informing the political goals and strategies of a range of progressive social movements. However, few studies have attempted to trace the history of the NCPE as a distinctive intellectual tradition or account for its place in consolidating a Left political milieu in Canada outside of Quebec. E…
Policing Urban Natures: Conservation Officer Work in O ttawa and T oronto, C anada
Drawing on the results of interviews and access to information requests, we explore conservation officer work in two urban regions in one C anadian province ( O ntario). Specifically, we examine the work of the federal‐level N ational C apital C ommission ( NCC ) in O ttawa and the provincial‐level T oronto and R egion C onservation A uthority ( TRCA ). Applying J essop, B renner and J ones's model of socio‐spatial relations, we show how nature p…
Urine trouble: A social history of bedwetting and its regulation
Bedwetting has confounded the presumed boundaries of the human body, existing in a fluid space, between the normal and pathological, its treatment has demanded the application of a wide array of different technologies, each based on a distinct conception of the relationship between the body and personality, human organs and personal conduct. In tracing the social history of bedwetting and its regulation, this article examines the ontological assu…
Intelligent Control: Developments in Public Order Policing in Canada by Willem DE Lint and Alan Hall
The Structure of Betrayal: Trade Union Bureaucracy and Public Sector Struggles in British Columbia
Chris Hurl considers provincial politics in British Columbia. Although a large number of health care and education workers — approximately 40,000 in each case — went on strike in 2004 and 2005, industrial conflict in the province has diminished, although few gains were achieved. Hurl deconstructs three prominent narratives explaining the labour struggles in British Columbia and argues that structure is actively constituted through the course of s…
(Dis)Assembling policy pipelines: Unpacking the Work of Management Consultants at Public Meetings
Confronting growing fiscal deficits in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, local governments around the world have often commissioned outside experts – such as policy gurus, management consultants, and transnational professional service firms – to undertake services delivery reviews as a means of making tough decisions, identifying the areas of government spending that are most expendable and setting priorities for cutbacks. This paper draws fr…
Pandemic consulting. How private consultants leverage public crisis management
This forum article discusses how the Covid19-pandemic as a major public crisis is transforming the relationship between governments and management consultants, contributing to the deepening presence of consulting firms in policy-making and governance. It shows how the crisis has entrenched private advice in public policymaking as governments are spending millions of dollars on transnational professional service firms like McKinsey, KPMG, Deloitte…
Remembering George W. Smith’s “Life Work”: From Politico-Administrative Regimes to Living Otherwise
This article revisits activist ethnographer George W. Smith’s intellectual and political legacy, with a focus on his engagement with and conception of “life work.” In the context of the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Smith contributed to reframing the way in which AIDS was problematized and confronted. Rather than treating people living with HIV/AIDS as “disease vectors” to be isolated from the general population, as had been the …
Operationalizing austerity: The role of transnational professional service firms in local government restructuring
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the “Big Four” professional service firms (KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Ernst and Young) have aggressively targeted the public sector with the aim of expanding their market in management consulting. As a part of these efforts, they have packaged and promoted service delivery reviews to local governments, offering consultations with the aim of identifying areas where savings can be accrued and services streamlined. Taking u…
Building walls within walls: Making value defensible in Public Private Partnerships
Despite widespread criticisms, governments around the world have adopted Value for Money (VfM) analysis as a key metric in gauging the prospective value of infrastructure projects. This paper examines the institutional processes through which VfM is rendered defensible as a form of valuation. Drawing on a case study of Infrastructure Ontario in Canada, the paper demonstrates that this involves strategies for partitioning space and time, including…
Elite networks in public private partnerships: Mapping the enabling field in Ontario
This paper explores the role of elite networks in brokering Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Ontario, Canada. Drawing from the notion of the “PPP enabling field,” we explore how PPPs are fostered by a broad constellation of public and private organizations, all of which work together to establish and legitimize PPPs as an infrastructure procurement model in Canada
Local government, the Standard Employment Relationship, and the making of Ontario's public sector, 1945-1963
This article examines the unionization of local government workers in Ontario during the 1940s and 1950s. While these workers played a central role in consolidating a standard employment relationship across the public sector, the advancement of collective bargaining rights, regular hours of work, and wages and benefits was fractured and spatially uneven. Bringing together theories of state formation with recent debates in labour geography, this a…
Building The New Canadian Political Economy
Since the late 1960s, the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) has played an important role in shaping the trajectory of the social sciences in Canada and informing the political goals and strategies of a range of progressive social movements. However, few studies have attempted to trace the history of the NCPE as a distinctive intellectual tradition or account for its place in consolidating a Left political milieu in Canada outside of Quebec. E…
Urine trouble: A social history of bedwetting and its regulation
Bedwetting has confounded the presumed boundaries of the human body, existing in a fluid space, between the normal and pathological, its treatment has demanded the application of a wide array of different technologies, each based on a distinct conception of the relationship between the body and personality, human organs and personal conduct. In tracing the social history of bedwetting and its regulation, this article examines the ontological assu…
The Structure of Betrayal: Trade Union Bureaucracy and Public Sector Struggles in British Columbia
Chris Hurl considers provincial politics in British Columbia. Although a large number of health care and education workers — approximately 40,000 in each case — went on strike in 2004 and 2005, industrial conflict in the province has diminished, although few gains were achieved. Hurl deconstructs three prominent narratives explaining the labour struggles in British Columbia and argues that structure is actively constituted through the course of s…
The Structure of Betrayal: Trade Union Bureaucracy and Public Sector Struggles in British Columbia
Chris Hurl considers provincial politics in British Columbia. Although a large number of health care and education workers — approximately 40,000 in each case — went on strike in 2004 and 2005, industrial conflict in the province has diminished, although few gains were achieved. Hurl deconstructs three prominent narratives explaining the labour struggles in British Columbia and argues that structure is actively constituted through the course of s…
Intelligent Control: Developments in Public Order Policing in Canada by Willem DE Lint and Alan Hall
Urine trouble: A social history of bedwetting and its regulation
Bedwetting has confounded the presumed boundaries of the human body, existing in a fluid space, between the normal and pathological, its treatment has demanded the application of a wide array of different technologies, each based on a distinct conception of the relationship between the body and personality, human organs and personal conduct. In tracing the social history of bedwetting and its regulation, this article examines the ontological assu…
Policing Urban Natures: Conservation Officer Work in O ttawa and T oronto, C anada
Drawing on the results of interviews and access to information requests, we explore conservation officer work in two urban regions in one C anadian province ( O ntario). Specifically, we examine the work of the federal‐level N ational C apital C ommission ( NCC ) in O ttawa and the provincial‐level T oronto and R egion C onservation A uthority ( TRCA ). Applying J essop, B renner and J ones's model of socio‐spatial relations, we show how nature p…
Building The New Canadian Political Economy
Since the late 1960s, the New Canadian Political Economy (NCPE) has played an important role in shaping the trajectory of the social sciences in Canada and informing the political goals and strategies of a range of progressive social movements. However, few studies have attempted to trace the history of the NCPE as a distinctive intellectual tradition or account for its place in consolidating a Left political milieu in Canada outside of Quebec. E…
Local government, the Standard Employment Relationship, and the making of Ontario's public sector, 1945-1963
This article examines the unionization of local government workers in Ontario during the 1940s and 1950s. While these workers played a central role in consolidating a standard employment relationship across the public sector, the advancement of collective bargaining rights, regular hours of work, and wages and benefits was fractured and spatially uneven. Bringing together theories of state formation with recent debates in labour geography, this a…
Operationalizing austerity: The role of transnational professional service firms in local government restructuring
Since the 2008 economic crisis, the “Big Four” professional service firms (KPMG, Deloitte, PwC, Ernst and Young) have aggressively targeted the public sector with the aim of expanding their market in management consulting. As a part of these efforts, they have packaged and promoted service delivery reviews to local governments, offering consultations with the aim of identifying areas where savings can be accrued and services streamlined. Taking u…
(Dis)Assembling policy pipelines: Unpacking the Work of Management Consultants at Public Meetings
Confronting growing fiscal deficits in the wake of the 2008 economic crisis, local governments around the world have often commissioned outside experts – such as policy gurus, management consultants, and transnational professional service firms – to undertake services delivery reviews as a means of making tough decisions, identifying the areas of government spending that are most expendable and setting priorities for cutbacks. This paper draws fr…
From Scavengers to Sanitation Workers: Practices of Purification and the Making of Civic Employees in Toronto, 1890-1920
In confronting the filth and decay of the early 20th century city, civic reformers often undertook ambitious programs that sought to not only eliminate the sources of disease from the urban environment but also to civilize urban dwellers, teaching them to live in pure and morally hygienic ways. Historical studies have tended to focus on the consumption side of this process, looking at how sanitary reformers and public health officials worked to e…
Remembering George W. Smith’s “Life Work”: From Politico-Administrative Regimes to Living Otherwise
This article revisits activist ethnographer George W. Smith’s intellectual and political legacy, with a focus on his engagement with and conception of “life work.” In the context of the AIDS crisis in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Smith contributed to reframing the way in which AIDS was problematized and confronted. Rather than treating people living with HIV/AIDS as “disease vectors” to be isolated from the general population, as had been the …
Accounting from below: Activists confront outsourcing in a London borough
Drawing on a case study of Barnet, an outer borough of London (UK), this article discusses the challenges that activists face in making sense of local government in the neoliberal era. With the aim of making things more ‘direct’, ‘open’, and ‘streamlined,’ the borough’s council decided in 2008 to outsource the bulk of its services in two large contracts to the professional service firm Capita Plc. However, contrary to the image of institutional t…
Pandemic consulting. How private consultants leverage public crisis management
This forum article discusses how the Covid19-pandemic as a major public crisis is transforming the relationship between governments and management consultants, contributing to the deepening presence of consulting firms in policy-making and governance. It shows how the crisis has entrenched private advice in public policymaking as governments are spending millions of dollars on transnational professional service firms like McKinsey, KPMG, Deloitte…
Elite networks in public private partnerships: Mapping the enabling field in Ontario
This paper explores the role of elite networks in brokering Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in Ontario, Canada. Drawing from the notion of the “PPP enabling field,” we explore how PPPs are fostered by a broad constellation of public and private organizations, all of which work together to establish and legitimize PPPs as an infrastructure procurement model in Canada
A Militancy of Invidious Comparisons
This article examines the efforts to establish objective criteria in deciding on appropriate wage levels for non-professional service workers in Ontario's hospital sector during the 1960s and 1970s. Drawing from recent literature in cultural political economy and the politics of valuation, it shows how industrial relations specialists sought to reframe the field of struggle through the practice of interest arbitration. Through a comparative study…
Building walls within walls: Making value defensible in Public Private Partnerships
Despite widespread criticisms, governments around the world have adopted Value for Money (VfM) analysis as a key metric in gauging the prospective value of infrastructure projects. This paper examines the institutional processes through which VfM is rendered defensible as a form of valuation. Drawing on a case study of Infrastructure Ontario in Canada, the paper demonstrates that this involves strategies for partitioning space and time, including…
Comprendre le pouvoir des grands cabinets de conseil dans l’élaboration de l’action publique en tant que fournisseurs de professionnels et d’infrastructures
Le pouvoir des grands cabinets de conseil sur les organismes publics ne tient pas seulement à la mobilisation de leurs réseaux et de leur capital social. Une part grandissante de leur pouvoir relève du « courtage », fondé sur leur capacité à exploiter leur contrôle sur les autres ressources professionnelles comme porte d’entrée vers les contrats de conseil. Une autre repose sur l’infrastructure, c’est-à-dire sur leur contrôle des systèmes technic…
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Economics (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Law (7 works) · Public Administration (7 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Business (5 works)