Author: Stephen Ball
Institution: University of London

EPRU fellow Stephen Ball discusses commodification in three social fields: in relation to childhood and parenting; in relation to social relationships (in education), including our relationship to ourselves; and more briefly, in relation to knowledge. His discussion, for the 2004 King's College Annual Lecture, may be thought of as, in-part, a cost-benefit analysis of the increasing use of 'the private' as a means of delivery of public services, including education.