The Consumer in Public Services: Choice, Values and Difference

✍ Scribed by Richard Simmons, Martin Powell, Ian Greener

• Publisher: Policy Press
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 305
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book challenges existing stereotypes about the 'consumer as chooser'. It shows how we must develop a more sophisticated understanding of consumers, examining their place and role as users of public services. The analysis shows that there are many different 'faces' of the consumer and that it is not easy to categorise users in particular environments. Drawing on empirical research, "The Consumer in Public Services" critiques established assumptions surrounding citizenship and consumption. Choice may grab the policy headlines but other essential values are revealed as important throughout the book. One issue concerns the 'subjects' of consumerism, or who it is that presents themselves when they come to use public services. Another concerns consumer 'mechanisms', or the ways that public services try to relate to these people. Bringing these issues together for the first time, with cutting-edge contributions from a range of leading researchers, the message is that today's public services must learn to cope with a differentiated public. This book will be of interest to scholars and students in the fields of social policy and public administration. It will also appeal to policy-makers leading 'user-focused' public service reforms, as well as those responsible for implementing such reforms at the frontline of modern public services.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
......Page 1
The consumer in public services......Page 2
Contents......Page 4
List of figures and tables......Page 5
Acknowledgements......Page 7
Notes on contributors......Page 8
Foreword......Page 13
Introduction......Page 16
Citizens, consumers and clients in the welfare state......Page 17
Multiple identities or hybrid citizens?......Page 21
Consumer typologies......Page 23
Consumer mechanisms......Page 27
Conclusions......Page 28
Introduction: New Labour and framing......Page 34
New Labour diagnostic frames......Page 36
New Labour’s prescriptive frames......Page 43
Consumer choice and the collective good......Page 47
Conclusion......Page 50
3. Narratives of public service delivery in the UK: comparing central and local government......Page 54
Public service users......Page 56
Three public service narratives......Page 57
Communities, customers and parents......Page 58
Comparing the narratives......Page 62
Conclusion......Page 65
Appendix: selection and coding of texts......Page 67
Introduction......Page 72
Current approaches to public service users......Page 73
The ‘differentiated consumer’ in public services......Page 76
Differentiating public service consumers: combining ‘subjective’ and ‘objective’ factors......Page 84
Introduction: politics, information and empowerment......Page 92
Context: professional services and the information society......Page 94
Methodology: service consumption in the knowledge economy......Page 98
Discussion: internet and fragmenting consumer behaviours......Page 99
Conclusion: understanding the fragmented consumer......Page 109
Citizens, consumers and clients in healthcare......Page 114
Consumers in the NHS......Page 116
Mechanisms of consumerism......Page 123
Faces of the healthcare consumer......Page 125
Conclusion......Page 127
Citizens, consumers and parents in education......Page 134
Mechanisms of consumerism......Page 138
Faces of the citizen-consumer in education......Page 144
Conclusion......Page 147
Introduction......Page 152
Citizens, clients and consumers......Page 154
History......Page 157
Mechanisms of consumerism......Page 162
Faces of consumerism......Page 164
Conclusion......Page 166
Introduction......Page 172
New Labour, consumerism and public service reform......Page 173
‘It’s not like shopping’: consumerism, choice and policing......Page 176
Community policing/policing the community......Page 179
Talking community: the problem of voice......Page 181
Conclusion: policing, politics and power......Page 184
Introduction......Page 192
Social care – the preconditions for consumerism......Page 193
The importance of choice in social care......Page 195
The development of consumerism in social care......Page 198
Consumerism in social care – new opportunities and risks......Page 201
Conclusions......Page 206
The role of social policy......Page 212
Issues of terminology......Page 213
Differentiation......Page 214
Differentiated, yes – but consumers?......Page 215
The disabled people’s movement......Page 216
The mental health service users’/survivors’ movement......Page 217
What the movements have in common......Page 218
Unpicking two related developments......Page 219
The emergence of user involvement......Page 222
Service users as agents in a consumerist world......Page 223
Towards new forms of involvement and action......Page 225
Ways forward......Page 229
Introduction......Page 234
Revisiting choice......Page 235
Authoritative consumers......Page 237
Rights, citizenship and social justice......Page 239
Social movements and social change......Page 240
Having a say......Page 246
Conclusion......Page 247
Introduction......Page 250
The nature of membership......Page 251
How are membership identifications constructed?......Page 255
Member-based organisations in public services......Page 257
Overlapping memberships: incompatibilities or complementarities between different types of membership?......Page 263
Introduction: choice is ‘not the only fruit’?......Page 270
The parameters of consumerism......Page 273
Context is important......Page 286
Conclusion: going ‘beyond the consumer as chooser’......Page 290
Index......Page 296