ABSTRACT
In pursuit of the neo-liberal project, education systems in Europe have moved from governing through implicit assumptions and highly contextualised knowledge to one in which performance is made visible and transparent. Local government and schools that were relatively closed to public and central government gaze are now rendered visible and calculable. A new ethics and politics of governance have emerged in which a particular style of formalised accountability has become a ruling principle that promotes the collection and use of comparative data on performance as a way of controlling and shaping behaviour. The key to this system lies in inculcating new norms and values by which external regulatory mechanisms transform the conduct of organisations and individuals in their capacity as self-actualising agents, to achieve political objectives through action at a distance. In the emerging European education policy space the Standing International Conference for Inspectorates (SICI) is a significant international arena for the brokering and learning of inspection policy and practice.
