Unsettled Connections: Citizens, consumers and the reform of public services
Abstract
This article explores some of the conditions and consequences of the centrality of the figure of the consumer in recent public service reform in the UK. New Labour's view of the modern world as being defined in part by the rise of a consumer culture or consumer society locates the figure of the consumer at the heart of its programme of public service reform in the decade from 1997. Drawing on a recent study of public services, the article considers the impact of this consumerist model of reform on the relationships between public service organizations and their publics, drawing out three particular sites of strain that mark the shifting relationships between the public and services. These are the tensions between rights, resources and rationing; the links and disjunctures between choice and voice; and the tangled formations of knowledge and power.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
1.
1. The project, Creating Citizen Consumers: Changing Identifications and Relationships, was part of the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption programme (Grant number: RES-143—25—0008). It also involved my colleagues Janet Newman, Nick Smith, Elizabeth Vidler and Louise Westmarland at the Open University. More details about the project can be found at http://www.open.ac. uk/socialsciences/citizenconsumers.
2.
2. The distinction is derived from Hirschmann's trinity of exit, voice and loyalty (1970). Voice is typically taken to mean the capacity to be listened to by an organization; while exit implies the capacity to take one's business elsewhere — to a competing provider. The 2004 Policy Commission on Public Services treats this as a distinction between `choice and voice', both of which `should be extended in order to rebalance services away from provider interests and towards the services of users' (National Consumer Council Policy Commission on Public Services, 2004: 7).
References
Barnes, M., Newman, J. and Sullivan, H. (2006) Power, Participation and Political Renewal Bristol: The Policy Press.
Barnes, M., Newman, J., Knops, A. and Sullivan, H. (2003) `Constituting “the Public” in Public Participation', Public Administration 81(2): 379—99.
Bauman, Z. (1998) Work, Consumerism and the New Poor Buckingham: Open University Press.
Blair, T. (2002) `The Courage of Our Convictions, Why Reform of the Public Services is the Route to Social Justice', The Fabian Society, Guardian Unlimited, 27 September (edited version). URL (accessed 19 February 2007): http: //www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,799786,00.html.
Blair, T. (2003) `Progress and Justice in the 21st Century', The Inaugural Fabian Society Annual Lecture, 17 June 2003. URL (accessed 19 February 2007): http://politics.guardian.co.uk/speeches/story/0,11126,979507,00.html
Brewer, J. (2003) `The Error of our Ways: Historians and the Birth of Consumer Society', Cultures of Consumption Programme Public Lecture, 23 September, London.
Byers, S. (2003) `The Former Transport and Local Government Secretary's Speech to the Social Market Foundation', Guardian Unlimited, 28 May. URL (accessed 19 February 2007): http://politics.guardian.co.uk/publicservices/story/0,965709,00.html.
Cayton, H. (2003) `Trust Me, I'm A Patient: Can Healthcare Afford the Informed Consumer?', speech delivered to the Royal College of Physicians, BUPA Health Debate, 2 September 2003, London.
Clarke, J. (2005) `Performing for the Public', in P. du Gay (ed.) The Values of Bureaucracy, pp. 211—22. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Clarke, J. (2006a) `Consumerism and the Remaking of State-Citizen Relationships', in C. McDonald and G. Marston (eds) Analysing Social Policy: A Governmental Approach, pp. 89—106. Brighton : Edward Elgar Publishing.
Clarke, J. (2006b) `Disorganizzare il publicco?' (Disorganizing the public), Rivista delle Politiche Sociali 2: 107—26.
Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (1997) The Managerial State: Power, Politics and Ideology in the Remaking of Social Welfare. London: Sage.
Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (2006) `The People's Choice? Citizens, Consumers and Public Services,' paper presented to the conference on Citizenship and Consumption: Agency, Norms, Mediation and Spaces, March, Cambridge.
Clarke, J. and Newman, J. (forthcoming) `What's in a Name? New Labour Citizen-Consumers and the Remaking of Public Services', Cultural Studies.
Clarke, J., Smith, N. and Vidler, E. (2006) `The Indeterminacy of Choice: Political, Policy and Organisational Dilemmas', Social Policy and Society 5(3): 1—10.
Clarke, J., Newman, J., Smith, N., Vidler, E. and Westmarland, L. (2007) Creating Citizen-Consumers: Changing Publics and Changing Public Services. London: Sage.
Collins, H. and Evans, R. (2002) `The Third Wave of Science Studies: Studies of Expertise and Experience', Social Studies of Science 32: 235—96.
Cooper, D. (2004) Challenging Diversity: Rethinking Equality and the Value of Difference. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
Coulter, A. and Magee, H. (2003) The European Patient of the Future. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Crawford, A., Lister, S., Blackburn, S. and Burnett, J. (2005) Plural Policing: The Mixed Economy of Visible Patrols in England and Wales. Bristol: The Policy Press.
Duyvendak, J., Knijn, T. and Kremer, M. (eds) ( 2006) Policy, People and the New Professional. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Dunleavy, P. (1991) Democracy, Bureaucracy and Public Choice. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
Edwards, T. (2000) Contradictions of Consumption: Concepts, Practices and Politics in Consumer Society. London: Sage.
Finlayson, A. (2003a) Making Sense of New Labour. London: Lawrence And Wishart .
Finlayson, A. (2003b) `Public Choice Theory: Enemy of Democracy', Soundings 24 (Autumn): 25—40.
Freidson, E. (2001) Professionalism: The Third Logic. Cambridge: Polity.
Gabriel, Y. (2004) `The Voice of Experience and the Voice of the Expert: Can they Speak to Each Other?', in B. Hurwitz, T. Greenhalgh and V. Skultans (eds) Narrative Research In Health And Illness, pp. 168—86. Oxford: Blackwell.
Gabriel, Y. and Lang, T. (1995) The Unmanageable Consumer. London: Sage.
Giddens, A. (1994) Beyond Left And Right. Cambridge : Polity Press.
Giddens, A. (1998) The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy . Cambridge: Polity Press.
Glendinning, C., Powell, M. and Rummery, K. (eds) ( 2002) Partnerships, New Labour and the Governance of Welfare . Bristol: The Policy Press.
Hall, S. (2003) `New Labour's Double Shuffle', Soundings 24: 10—24.
Harrison, S. and Mort, M. (1998) `Which Champions, Which People? Public and User Involvement in Health Care as a Technology of Legitimation', Social Policy and Administration 32: 60—70.
Harvey, D. (2005) A Brief History of Neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hilton, M. (2006) `The Banality of Consumption', paper presented at the Citizenship and Consumption: Agency, Norms, Mediation and Spaces conference, March, Cambridge, UK.
Hirschmann, A. (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Langan, M. (ed.) (1998) Welfare: Needs, Rights And Risks. London: Routledge.
Lipsky, M. (1980) Street-Level Bureaucracy: Dilemmas of the Individual in Public Services. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
McKibbin, R. (2006) `The Destruction of the Public Sphere', London Review of Books 28(1).URL (accessed 19 February 2007 ): http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n01/mcki01_.html.
Marquand, D. (2004) The Decline of the Public. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Miliband, D. (2000) `This is the Modern World', Fabian Review 111(4): 11—13.
Ministers of State for Department of Health, Local and Regional Government, and School Standards (2004) `The Case for User Choice in Public Services'. a joint memorandum to the Public Administration Select Committee Inquiry into Choice, Voice and Public Services . London: House of Commons.
Mintzberg, F. (1983) Structure in Fives: Designing Organisational Effectiveness . London: Prentice-Hall.
National Consumer Council Policy Commission on Public Services (2004) Making Public Services Personal: A New Compact for Public Services. London: National Consumer Council.
Needham, C. (2003) Citizen-Consumers: New Labour's Marketplace Democracy . London: The Catalyst Forum.
Newman, J. (2001) Modernising Governance: New Labour, Policy and Society. London: Sage.
Newman, J. (ed.) (2005) Remaking Governance: Peoples, Politics and the Public Sphere. Bristol : The Policy Press.
Newman, J. and Vidler, E. (2006) `Discriminating Customers, Responsible Patients, Empowered Users: Consumerism And The Modernisation Of Health Care', Journal of Social Policy 35(2): 193—209.
Office of Public Services Reform (2002) Reforming our Public Services: Principles Into Practice. London: Office Of Public Services Reform.
O'Neill, O. (2002) A Question of Trust: The BBC Reith Lectures 2002 . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Pollock, A. (2004) NHS Plc. London: Verso.
Power, M. (1997) The Audit Society. Cambridge : Polity.
Rose, H. (2000) `Risk, Trust And Scepticism in the Age of the New Genetics', in B. Adam, U. Beck and J. Van Loon (eds) The Risk Society and Beyond, pp. 63—77. London: Sage.
Rose, N. (1999) Powers of Freedom. Cambridge : Polity Press.
Sennett, R. (2003) Respect: The Formation of Character in an Age of Inequality. London: Penguin.
Sheaff, R., Marshall, M., Rogers, A., Roland, M., Sibbald, B. and Pickard, S. (2004) `Governmentality by Network in English Primary Health Care', Social Policy and Administration 38(1): 89—103.
Social Care Institute for Excellence (2004) ` Has Service User Participation Made a Difference to Social Care Services?', Position Paper No. 3, Social Care Institute for Excellence, London.
Steinberg, D.L. and Johnson, R. (eds) (2004) Blairism and the War of Persuasion: Labour's Passive Revolution. London: Lawrence And Wishart.
Trentmann, F. (2006) `Knowing Consumers: Histories, Identities, Practices ', in F. Trentmann (ed.) The Making of the Consumer: Knowledge, Power and Identity in the Modern World, pp. 1—22. Oxford and New York : Berg.
Westmarland, L. (2001) Gender and Policing: Sex, Power and Police Culture . Cullompton: Willan.
Williams, F. (2000) `Principles of Recognition and Respect in Welfare', in G. Lewis, S. Gewirtz and J. Clarke (eds) Rethinking Social Policy, pp. 338—52. London: Sage.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: July 2007
Issue published: July 2007
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Article usage*
Total views and downloads: 240
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 0
Crossref: 0
-
Machinic, inadequate, entrepreneurial: Uncovering the citizen subject ...
-
Resisting Unmet Expectations as Service User Ethics: Implications for ...
-
A dialectical reflection on the emergence of the ‘citizen as consumer’...
-
Person-centred care in Northern Ireland: learning from the experiences...
-
Housing in the Global North and the Global South
-
Manoeuvring challenging demands: care managers, the Free Choice System...
-
Citizen-Consumers Wanted: Revitalizing the American Dream in the Face ...
-
The employment conditions of social care personal assistants in Englan...
-
Citizens, technology and the NPM movement
-
Jamming the jamming: Brazilian protests as an illustration of a new po...
-
Merely a rhetorical promise? Older users' opportunities for choice and...
-
Kulturelle Ideen als Grundlage der Wohlfahrtsstaatsforschung
-
Autonomy, Choice and Control for Older Users of Home Care Services: Cu...
-
The impact of personal budgets on unpaid carers of older people
-
Chapitre 4. Approche politique. Télésoins pour personnes âgées et pers...
-
Collaborative housing and housing providers: towards an analytical fra...
-
Do direct payments improve outcomes for older people who receive socia...
-
Citizens’ Entrepreneurial Role in Public Service Provision
-
The Ethics of Web Analytics
-
Public Libraries, Citizens and the Democracy
-
Navigating the market of welfare services: The choice of upper seconda...
-
‘Putting our mark on things’: The identity work of user participation ...
-
Public Management Reform and the Regulation of Private Business: Risk-...
-
The Growing Emphasis on Social Citizenship in Nordic Education: Induci...
-
The Emergence and Impact of Neoliberal Ideology on UK Public Library P...
-
Choice-equity dilemma in special education provision
-
Global responsibility through consumption?
-
O fetiche do eu autônomo: consumo responsável, excesso e redenção como...
-
Notice of Retraction: Perspectives, skills and challenges for developi...
-
Internet-based trials and the creation of health consumers
-
L'heure du choix.
-
Beyond Citizens and Consumers? Publics and Public Service Reform
-
Paradoxes of increased individuation and public awareness of environme...
-
Developing Consumer Subjectivity in Ireland: 1900—80
-
Hobson's choice? Meaning, manner and merits of choice in public servic...
-
The citizen-consumer hybrid: ideological tensions and the case of Whol...
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
