In a brand new paper co-authored with Nathan Davies (Oxford Web Institute), we revisit the theoretical conceptualisation of procurement and make the declare that it’s infrastructure.
We argue for a basic shift in how public procurement is known: not simply as a regulatory or transactional device, however as a foundational type of infrastructure that shapes state capability and digital transformation.
That is very a lot a piece in progress — we welcome feedback, critiques, and collaboration as we develop it additional!
The summary is as follows:
Public procurement constitutes a basic governance mechanism via which states work together with markets. It’s a huge and consequential operate of presidency, accounting for roughly one-third of public expenditure in most economies. Current public administration scholarship has predominantly conceptualised procurement via legal-regulatory, financial, or administrative views. While useful, these approaches insufficiently theorise procurement’s position in structuring governance potentialities and enabling or hindering state capability. This paper advances a novel theoretical intervention by reconceptualizing procurement itself as infrastructure fairly than merely as a mechanism for buying or outsourcing it. Drawing on Susan Leigh Star’s influential work in infrastructure research (Star, 1999), we systematically analyse how procurement programs—comprising authorized frameworks, administrative routines, skilled practices, and technological platforms—operate as embedded socio-technical infrastructures that allow and constrain governance. Supported by an examination of illustrative UK instances, together with the Carillion collapse, Submit Workplace scandal and COVID-19 PPE procurement failures, we argue that these usually are not remoted implementation failures however manifestations of infrastructural breakdown ensuing from systemic overload coupled with upkeep neglect. This reconceptualization bridges public administration scholarship with anthropological and socio-legal views and descriptions avenues for future analysis. For policymakers, our evaluation emphasises that procurement requires sustained funding and a focus, and acceptable use, fairly than superficial regulatory changes that neglect its foundational capability to construction governance outcomes.
The total paper is freely downloadable on SSRN: Davies, Nathan and Sanchez-Graells, Albert, Procurement as Infrastructure (June 16, 2025): https://ssrn.com/summary=5297077.
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