WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Abstract

The reform of public services in the UK has been driven – in part – by a conception of citizens as consumers of public services, a conception that has been articulated in narratives about the wider social transition to a consumer culture. This paper explores the political and policy discourses of New Labour's citizen-consumer. We examine some of the conditions, condensation and consequences of this hyphenated identification in the context of New Labour's political and governmental project. We draw on a recent research project that examined the shift towards a consumerist orientation in public services, using material from this project to explore popular understandings of identifications and relationships with one particular public service: health care.1 1. Creating Citizen-Consumers: Changing Identifications and Relationships was funded as part of the ESRC/AHRC Cultures of Consumption research programme between March 2003 and May 2005 (Grant Number RES-143-25-0008). The project also included Nick Smith, Elizabeth Vidler and Louise Westmarland and was based in the Department of Social Policy at the Open University. We studied three public services: health, policing and social care in two different locations (Oldtown and Newtown) and involved service managers, front line staff and users of the services. More details about the study can be found at www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/citizenconsumers. We end by considering some of the political and analytical implications of such everyday understandings and the forms of reasoning that they involve.

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