Creating Citizen-Consumers: Changing Publics and Changing Public Services

`This is an illuminating and topical study, which skilfully blends together theoretical and empirical analysis in search of the "citizen-consumer". It should become a key text for all with an interest in public service reform and the "choice" agenda, as well as consumerism and citizenship′ - Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy, University of Loughborough Political, popular and academic debates have swirled around the notion of the citizen as a consumer of public services, with public service reform increasingly geared towards a consumer society. This innovative book draws on original research with those people in the front-line of the reforms - staff, managers and users of public services - to explore their responses to this turn to consumerism. Creating Citizen-Consumers explores a range of theoretical, political, policy and practice issues that arise in the shift towards consumerism. It draws on recent controversies about choice to examine the tensions of modernising public services to meet the demands of a consumer society. The book offers a fresh and challenging understanding of the relationships between people and services, and argues for a model based on interdependence, respect and partnership rather than choice. This original book makes a distinctive contribution to debates about the future of public services. It will be of interest to those studying social policy, cultural studies, public administration and management across the social sciences, as well as for those working in public services. John Clarke is a Professor of Social Policy at the Open University. Janet Newman is a Professor of Social Policy at the Open University. Nick Smith is a Research Officer in the Personal Social Services Research Unit at the University of Kent. Elizabeth Vidler is a Project Officer in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Open University. Louise Westmarland is a Lecturer in Criminology at the Open University.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Changing Times Perspectives on the Citizen-Consumer Public Service Reform The Rise of the Citizen-Consumer Delivery Problems? Consumerism and Institutional Variation Unstable Encounters Users, Staff and Services Managing Consumerism From Policy to Practice Sites of Strain Consumerism and Public Services What′s in a Name? In Search of the Citizen-Consumer Beyond the Citizen-Consumer

About the Author :
Author/Editor Description: Janet Newman is Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Policy, University of Birmingham. She is co-author of ′The Managerial State′ (with J Clarke, SAGE 97), author of ′Shaping Organisational Cultures in Local Government′ (96), and co-editor of ′Gender, Culture and Organisational Change (with C Itzin, eds, 95). My research interests include gender and the police, violence and integrity and ethics in the criminal justice system. I’m also interested in ethnographic research methods, danger, fear and situations where privileged access leads to dilemmas for researchers. In the past I have published articles on police informers and the way they are regulated and the effect of this upon rights and justice. More recently I’ve completed a book about research methods in criminology. My other recent research projects have included studying women bouncers and violence in the context of social control of the night time economy (ESRC Grant reference: RES-000-23-0384-A). This project was called Women on the Door: Female Bouncers in the New Night-time Economy carried out with Professor Dick Hobbs.