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Read any useful research lately, unanswered research questions From: Mick Date: Jul 22 17:55 UTC Short link
Simon
Thanks (also for references). You clarified my position but where I am
getting to is the consumerisation of the citizen. In the context you
describe that is perfect but there is a tendency for politicians or
their servants to label them as customers without giving them a choice!
Mick -----Original Message----- From: <email obscured> [mailto:<email obscured>] On Behalf Of Simon Smith Sent: 22 July 2008 17:45 To: <email obscured> Subject: Re: [Consult] Read any useful research lately, unanswered research questions Michael wrote (in response to Mick): > You contrast the roles of: * passive consumer of government services * active citizen > But maybe the active citizen needs as much mistrust and opposition to > government, as trust and participation? Historically anyway, the > public sphere of active, private people was critical of government and > often in opposition to it. It was not a willing and cooperative > partnership. Though maybe it will be different, this time around - > there are reasons to think so. Without having read it, I think that's probably a misinterpretation of Mick's work. Customer versus citizen is not passive versus active. On the contrary, customer-based relationships can be extremely active, both in commerce and in public services. The growing use of personal budgets in health and social care, for example, is an example of a customer-based relationship which invites/demands service users to become proactive, even creative, in how they spend their benefits. It's essentially an individualised relationship with the state, but it could be argued that this type of consumerist democracy still constitutes what Eriksen calls a general public sphere of consumers, 'co-deciding' (in the current jargon) about public policy outcomes through their spending decisions. Citizenship in the type of deliberative democracy you are proposing actually often tends to manifest itself in smaller, 'strong publics' - in different segments of the public sphere, which act as policy networks, project teams, communities of critical reflection (like this one!) or oppositional/subaltern enclaves. But why set up an opposition between the roles of customer and citizen? Can't we do/be both? You might be interested in the following references: Bovaird, T. (2005) 'Public governance: balancing stakeholder power in a network society', International Review of Administrative Sciences 71(2): 217-28. Eriksen, E. (2007) 'Conceptualising European public spheres. General, segmented and strong publics' in Fossum, J. & Schlesinger, P. (eds.) The European Union and the public sphere: a communicative space in the making? London: Routledge: 23-43. Simon Smith ----------------------------------------- Group home for Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation: http://groups.dowire.org/groups/consult Replies go to members of Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation with all posts on this topic here: http://groups.dowire.org/r/topic/52npCuE0O19mQgGqYwoLHc For digest version or to leave Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation, email <email obscured> with "digest on" or "unsubscribe" in the *subject*. Online Consultations, Dialogues, and E-Participation is hosted by Democracies Online - http://dowire.org. No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.4/1566 - Release Date: 22/07/2008 06:00
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