Formerly Chair of the Committee of Inquiry into Human Fertilisation and Embryology, Mistress

of Girton College, Cambridge and Headmistress of Oxford High School

Her many books include The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Ethics, Nature and Mortality,

Making Babies: Is There a Right to Have Children?, A Memoir: People and Places

Lecturer in Medical Ethics and Law, Imperial College, London

Course organiser for the MSc in Medical  Ethics

Author of Ethics and book chapters and papers on ethical issues in healthcare

Professeur, Institut Superieur D'Etudes et de Recherches Pedagogiques

Universite de Luxembourg

Reader in Philosophy in the School of Historical & Critical Studies
University of Brighton

Former President of the UK Association for Legal and Social Philosophy

Founding Editor Res Publica

Representative of the UK Campaign for the Future of Higher Education

He has been a Visiting Research Fellow in the Centre for Philosophy and Public Affairs at the

University of St Andrews and a Visiting Research and Teaching Fellow at the Department of

Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. 

Books include Getting What You Want? A Critique of Liberal Morality

Member of the Editorial Board Philosophy of Management

Reader in Evolutionary Psychiatry
University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Formerly Visiting Distinguished Millennial Fellow, King’s College, London

Editor in Chief of Medical Hypotheses

He is the author of numerous papers and book chapters on education, healthcare management and systems theory. His books include The Making of a Doctor -Medical Education in Theory and Practice (1992), Psychiatry and the Human Condition (2000) and The Modernization Imperative (2003).
Member of the Editorial Board Philosophy of Management

Chair, National Council for Voluntary Organisations

Formerly Chief Executive Royal National Institute for Deaf People, Chairman of Heritage Care,

Trustee of the Charities Aid foundation

Member of the Economic and Social Research Council, of the inter-change Steering Council of the

Cabinet Office and of the Foresight Steering Group of the Office of Science and Technology

Conference Chairs

John Edwards

Professor of Social Policy, Royal Holloway, University of London

Nigel Laurie

Management Consultant and Editor & Publisher, Philosophy of Management (formerly Reason in Practice)

Context and Purpose

In recent years managers and markets have come to play key roles in a public sector constantly required to show improved performance and ‘delivery’ against a background of scarce resources, rising expectations and increasing transparency.  Public accountability, audits and league tables have become guarantors of performance where once an ethic of public service and the demands of professionalism ruled.  As a result, some would argue  that the public sector traditions of service and professionalism and the very notion of a public sector ethic are under increasing strain.  Others contend that consumer choice, the rigour of the market and managed services offer more than the traditional ethic could ever hope to provide.

The public sector has therefore had to adapt to a grafting of managerial styles with little apparent concern for the full benefits and costs of trying to merge managerialism with public service.  We know some of the costs affecting providers: doctors who feel they have lost control of their work to managers; teachers who feel their public standing has collapsed; public sector professionals who feel they have lost their autonomy under a welter of monitoring and measurement.

Such responses point to a fundamental concern.  What damage - if any - is being done to the public sector ethic of service and the autonomy of professionals?

The march of managerialism, however,  might not be the sole cause of the perceived weakening of an ethic of public service.  The decay of a professional ethic is further advanced in the private sector from whence comes the more persuasive threat.  Privatism has been grafted on to the public sector alongside managerialism.  Patients, pupils, students, the recipients of social work, all are now placed in a market as ‘clients’ or ‘customers’ and professional autonomy has been subverted by the demands of ‘productivity’ in serving them.  Private choice has perhaps supplanted public good.

This symposium will bring together experts in ethics and in the public and private sectors to present their latest thinking on these matters and open up debate on an area of critical concern.  The symposium is organised to provide plentiful opportunities for formal and informal discussion.

The ethics of managerialism vs the ethics of professionalism

The ethics of service in a world of consumers 

Registration

£50 including tea, lunch, coffee and reception

Unwaged: £30   Students: free (subject to availability)

The fee includes coffee, lunch, tea and a reception

Please use the form below

______________________________________________________________

 Please send   

....... Standard tickets at £50.00

....... Unwaged delegate tickets at £30.00

…....  Free student tickets (subject to availability)

Make cheques payable to "rhul" and mark clearly on the reverse "Ethics Symposium"

Enclose an sae with this form and return to:

Professor John Edwards

Department of Social and Political Science

Royal Holloway University of London

Egham  Surrey tw20 0ex   UK

Print your name here as it should appear on your name badge

Please indicate how many vegetarian lunches are required.......

For further information contact

Professor John Edwards

telephone +44 (0)1784 443151

Links for Royal Holloway

For information about hotels and overnight accommodation contact Marta Baker at Royal Holloway

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