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Aims to discuss the relationship between the recent G8 summit of 2005, held at Gleneagles, Scotland, and events occurring around the same time in the world of academe and in the global media.

Draws upon personal experience and interpretation in order to raise issues for critical discussion and reflection, in relation to the impact and effectiveness of resistance movements within academe, activist counter‐movements, and in society at large.

It is argued that high‐profile media presentations of “big wins” and of major change to “first world” policy in relation to “third world” poverty and development mask a situation of no real change to structural factors of global economics and political power, and that this is an area which should be addressed by the academic community.

Discusses issues of contemporary relevance, and seeks to stimulate further debate and discourse in the academic arena.

Aims to make critical comment on the role of expert consultants and the contribution of communication in organisational decision making, through reference to theory and case studies. The three case studies analyse factors in decision making processes at different stages and relating to different aspects of facilities management, including re‐planning, relocation and development in IT use. Although there are clear differences in the organisations and the foci of the projects, the issues of expert intervention and the nature of communication cross cut the different cases. Through reflection on three iterations of expert intervention, the basic model of power/knowledge/communications is criticised and developed in such a way as to redistribute responsibilities and power, and hence to encourage knowledge‐focused communication. The emergent model is not one which will be comfortably accepted by all the parties, since it challenges the mystique of the expert as provider of knowledge inputs, the role of the manager as holder of power, and the user as being devoid of responsibility.