Threadbare consultancy
Straining budget margins in for-profit international development programmes
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19219611 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sarah-Jane Phelan (0000-0002-5697-2322, University of Sussex), Brendan Whitty (0000-0002-9575-4782, University of St Andrews) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 1-24 |
| Publication date | 2026-05-08 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Economy and Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0308-5147 • E-ISSN: 1469-5766 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/03085147.2026.2640749 |
| OpenAlex | W7160643229 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 40 |
Critical understandings of public outsourcing often caricature private contractors and consultancies as profiteering, giving little consideration to either end-beneficiaries or taxpayers. Drawing on qualitative interviews across a range of for-profit development firms in the United Kingdom, this paper shows how growing political scepticism has generated commercial pressure and an adversarial contracting environment, constraining operational possibilities as well as profit margins in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s supplier market. We introduce the concept of ‘threadbare consultancy’ to describe this phenomenon, with resources stretched too thinly to allow firms to feel they can ‘do well, whilst doing good’. Rather than single-minded capital extraction, contractor staff describe encountering growing everyday and existential difficulties in reconciling commercial and operational demands, straining translation work at the various seams where the project budgets that mediate exchange and action are created, maintained and (re)negotiated
Developing country · Globalization · International comparisons · International development · Human Rights and Development · International Development and Aid · Poverty, Education, and Child Welfare
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |