Janet Newman

The Open University · Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance

This book examines what value, if any, the state has for the pursuit of progressive politics; and how it might need to be reimagined and remade to deliver transformative change. Is it possible to reimagine the state in ways that open up projects of political transformation? This interdisciplinary collection provides alternative perspectives to the...

Contemporary interest in citizen engagement in public policy stems from a concern with the governance and quality of public service delivery, with improving the legitimacy of decision making and with articulating the claims of those previously marginalised (Barnes and Bowl 2001; Newman 2001; Sullivan and Skelcher 2002). This article discusses recen...

“Transformative change” has long been the rallying cry of those with a stake in human service provision. It has been the call of social movement activists seeking enhanced rights and voice. But it has also been the demand of policymakers seeking to redraw the relationship between state and citizen (shifting responsibility, promoting resilience, and...

This chapter offers an analysis of the very different political projects that mobilise ideas and practices of community development. However, it argues, such projects do not exist in any pure form but are subject to two crucial political processes. The chapter shows how ideas and practices of community development move across national and/or instit...

In this chapter I set out to show something of the contested place of interpretive methods in social policy. In contrast to the Fabian traditions of empirical research that influenced the development and expansion of the British welfare state, interpretivism is strongly associated with forms of critical social policy analysis that centre on the cul...

It is now widely acknowledged that austerity is bad for women. But, this paper argues, the gendering of austerity is multifaceted. It can be understood not only as the effects of welfare retrenchment and cuts on women (policy) but also as governmentality; as ideology. The paper traces the contours of each, and goes onto highlight the dilemmas creat...

This chapter points to the growing significance of ‘emotion governance’ while challenging the notion that this represents a straightforward shift in regimes and strategies of power. Neoliberalism, I argue, rests on the elicitation of ‘rage’ (against welfare, bureaucracy and ‘irresponsible’ citizenship). but it also draws on emotional values – of co...

This chapter concerns neoliberalism and its ‘others’, and how the relationship between them is mediated through different forms of expertise. Neoliberalism is often viewed as displacing old forms of expertise: those associated with Fordist economies and hierarchical orderings of power. But if neoliberalism is treated not as a solid, unitary form bu...

This collection of contributions uses the 21nd anniversary of the publication of Allan Cochrane’s Whatever Happened to Local Government? (1993) to reflect on the state of contemporary English local government, and in the process assess the book’s intellectual legacy.

This contribution explores how far notions of 'political generation' – formed in and through common experience and agency – is sustainable. It draws on a research study to show how generation can be understood as multifaceted (traversed by multiple social divisions and identities), dynamic (rather than a static form of belonging) and recursive (rat...

This article recontextualises the way we think of the state, and asserts its continuing importance for the left. It argues that we need to re-imagine the state as a site of contestation and compromise, not a monolithic entity. Social movements and new ideas can lead to new settlements within the state: there are therefore always political possibili...

One of the most significant European higher education reform initiatives of the last decade is the introduction of a European Qualification Framework (EQF) emphasising Learning Outcomes (LOs) in higher education. The EQF is offered as a reform to contribute to increased transparency and mobility, and also implies a certain degree of standardization...

This paper offers an engagement with theoretical deficits in some uses of neoliberalism as an explanatory concept. It draws on theories of ideology, of governmentality and of assemblage to offer alternative conceptions of the relationship between neoliberalism and its others, and to illuminate the ambiguous and contradictory role of local governmen...

This paper addresses the problem of how to engage with the politics of public policy in the current period of cuts, austerity and retrenchment. It explores current strategies of divestment, design and decentralisation, assessing the scope within each for creative enactments and alternative pathways. It then explores 'public-making' as a means of co...

This paper addresses the problem of how to engage with the politics of public policy in the current period of cuts, austerity and retrenchment. There is currently a plethora of actors seeking to intervene in the policy landscape, and a turn to new images and models of the policy process that challenge the governance theories of previous decades. Th...

This paper offers an intervention into current debates about the demise of feminist politics in neoliberal times. It draws on an empirical study of women working the spaces of power over the last 50 years to trace different mappings of the 'landscapes of antagonism' in which feminism and neoliberalism are entangled. The paper challenges singular co...

This article begins by tracing some of the different standpoints from which a critical engagement with ‘governance’ has been developed; then goes on to assess the potential contribution of some strands of feminist cultural and political theory. Such theory, used to frame the findings of a particular research project, offers a challenge to power-res...

This extract — from an interview with a feminist activist in the UK — inspired the focus of this chapter. Feminist political projects have sought to transform politics and culture while also seeking to extend rights and recognition in the existing polity, but at the same time such struggles have produced resources on which governments draw. This ha...

This article explores how women’s activism contributed to the generation of local capacities and resources (‘making’ the local); how women attempted to subvert or co-opt emerging patterns of local governance (‘contesting’ the local); and engaged with strategies of governing and managing local communities (‘governing’ the local). In elaborating thes...

This article explores some of the issues for policy scholars arising from the increasing attention paid to 'emotion' and 'affect' in contemporary social science. One such issue is in the focus placed on detailed ethnographic methods and interpretive forms of analysis, and the problem this raises for drawing out connections to changing regimes of go...

This article explores the significance of managerialism as a concept for thinking about projects of state reform across the last forty years. Making particular reference to the United Kingdom and its role in the proliferation of the New Public Management, the article suggests that managerialism (as an ideology) and managerialisation (as a process o...

The return of austerity has provoked social conflict, political controversy and academic disputes. In this article we explore some of these through the metaphor of an ‘alchemy of austerity’ that forms the foundation for strategies of state retrenchment through which the consent of populations is sought. We begin, in ‘Magical thinking’, by tracing s...

In order to give this rather free floating concept of active citizenship analytical power, we have in this volume focused on three of its constituent concepts – those of responsibility, participation and choice. These three concepts have been elaborated in the country-based chapters in this volume, both through analyses of policy texts and through...

In order to give this rather free floating concept of active citizenship analytical power, we have in this volume focused on three of its constituent concepts – those of responsibility, participation and choice. These three concepts have been elaborated in the country-based chapters in this volume, both through analyses of policy texts and through...

Gender has been a recurrent theme in this volume. But in order to understand the different genderings of active citizenship, we need to look at differences between the political projects involved (see chapter 1). Looking across this volume as a whole, it is evident that such political projects – however diverse – are transforming public and private...

Even though chapter 10 could be read as the concluding chapter, this is not where we want to end this book. We ended chapter 10 by pointing to some agendas emerging out of this book that we thought deserved elaboration. In this and the next chapter we want to elaborate on two of these agendas: the citizenship of professionals and the gender dimensi...

Even though chapter 10 could be read as the concluding chapter, this is not where we want to end this book. We ended chapter 10 by pointing to some agendas emerging out of this book that we thought deserved elaboration. In this and the next chapter we want to elaborate on two of these agendas: the citizenship of professionals and the gender dimensi...

Gender has been a recurrent theme in this volume. But in order to understand the different genderings of active citizenship, we need to look at differences between the political projects involved (see chapter 1). Looking across this volume as a whole, it is evident that such political projects – however diverse – are transforming public and private...

This article addresses the evolution of the idea of the involving public sector, and traces its relationship to earlier discourses of participation and choice. It asks whether we should consider the developing discourse of involvement as something that offers a progressive move towards citizen empowerment and social justice, or whether instead it m...

The boundary between academic research and policy making is characterised by at least two different sets of 'troubles'. This article draws on the author's experience as scientific adviser to a UK government department to highlight the often-problematic relationship between researchers and policy actors, and to tease out conflicting understandings o...

This article focuses on public leadership as public-making, drawing on the work of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) seminar series on Emergent Publics. The article explores three sets of processes on which publicmaking depends: those of summoning, mediation and mobilization. Together, it is argued, these offer a way of promoting a pol...

Contributions from political, health and economic geography, social policy and environmental policy studies are brought together here in order to examine the implications of a ‘libertarian paternalist’ political ‘project’ which seeks to react in pragmatic and ideological terms to the excesses and limitations of neoliberalism in liberal democratic c...

The management of cities has to address new risks, insecurities and emergencies. In this article we analyse the management of the aftermath of two crises – a tornado that hit a part of Birmingham in the UK, and a fireworks explosion that hit a part of the city of Enschede in The Netherlands – in order to understand how local institutions and commun...

Responsibility, participation and choice are key policy framings of active citizenship, summoning the citizen to take on new roles in welfare state reform. This volume traces the emergence of new discourses and the ways in which they take up and rework struggles of social movements for greater independence, power and control. It explores the changi...

The management of cities has to address new risks, insecurities and emergencies. In this article we analyse the management of the aftermath of two crises – a tornado that hit a part of Birmingham in the UK, and a fireworks explosion that hit a part of the city of Enschede in The Netherlands – in order to understand how local institutions and commun...

After critically reviewing the apparent ‘turn’ from welfare states to pedagogic states, I focus on forms of pedagogy evident in notions of citizen empowerment. Issues raised through documentary analysis of key UK policy texts are examined through frameworks offered by Aradhana Sharma's work on women's empowerment in India in order to widen the anal...

The construction of crises is a key analytical and political issue. This paper examines what is at stake in the processes and practices of construction, responding to the arguments made in Andrew Gamble's The spectres at the feast (2009). We suggest that there are three areas of critical concern: first, that too little attention has been given to t...

This chapter introduces the different topics covered by the book. By focusing in detail on different examples of the emergence of publics in diverse contexts, the book seeks to underscore the sense that the purpose of emphasising the variable qualities of publics is to keep in view that processes of assembling, convening, and summoning publics are...

This book rethinks the public, public communication and public action in a globalising world. It looks at how publics are brought into being and how to develop research agendas into their formation, offering a rich set of methodological resources and stressing the need to examine the boundaries between theory, research and politics.

The chapters in this collection demonstrate the multiplicity of ways in which the project of ‘rethinking’ the public is proceeding. It is not our purpose here to summarise them, but to highlight key issues this volume presents for future analysis of the processes of public formation. We do so by returning to the four themes set out in the introduct...

This book rethinks the public, public communication and public action in a globalising and mediated world. It develops novel theoretical perspectives for investigating the formation of publics, focusing on four overlapping processes: claiming publics; personalising publics; mediating publics; and becoming public. Using fascinating case studies, Ret...

This book rethinks the public, public communication and public action in a globalising and mediated world. It develops novel theoretical perspectives for investigating the formation of publics, focusing on four overlapping processes: claiming publics; personalising publics; mediating publics; and becoming public.Using fascinating case studies, Reth...

People cannot ‘read off’ the likelihood of subversion from a particular configuration of variables. This chapter's stories of subversion in action similarly emphasise the way in which things may come together and also come apart — adopting the concept of ‘assemblages’ to reflect on the way in which multiple resources and capabilities may be mobilis...

This article describes and discusses the findings of recent research into public participation at in two contrasting English cities in order to reflect on the capacity of new opportunities for participation to contribute to democratic renewal. Our research revealed the rich diversity of sites and practices within the field of public participation....

Challenges the notion that publicness and the public sphere is in decline, and analyses the emergence of new forms, sites and practices of publicness and the implications for public services. Covers: - shifting formations of nation and the challenges of migration, diversity and faith to universalistic notions of the public - how the emphasis on of...

This article reflects on the process and outcomes of modernisation in adult social care in England and Wales, drawing particularly on the recently completed Modernising Adult Social Care (MASC) research programme commissioned by the Department of Health. We begin by exploring the contested status of ‘modernisation’ as a descriptor of reform. We the...

Choice has emerged as a key idea for the reform of public services in the UK and internationally. This paper explores three sets of problems in the analysis of choice in public policy. First, at what level should we be studying choice (specific mechanisms, national politics, transnational processes and travelling ideas)? Second, what sorts of tende...

The New Management of British Local Governance. Edited by Gerry Stoker. Macmillan Press in association with the ESRC Local Governance Programme, 1999. Pp.295. £45 hb; £14.99 pb. Beyond the New Public Management: Changing Ideas and Practices in Governance. Edited by Martin Minogue, Charles Polidano and David Hulme. Edward Elgar, 1998. Pp.325. £59.95...

About the book: Provides a comprehensive and up-to-date guide to social policy in the UK. Students can use it for information, inspiration and guidance throughout their studies, from their first encounters with the subject through to advanced research or employment. Written by a distinguished team of teachers and scholars in the forefront of social...

This article examines the tensions and related dilemmas which emerge as part of governance strategies that change the relationship between citizens and public welfare services. This includes both participation through free choice and citizen participation in networks. The first time of participation is closely linked to New Public Management and is...

This paper traces the changing political/cultural formations of publicness in Britain, and how these intersect with emerging strategies for governing the social. It draws on three sets of discursive oppositions or elisions - those of public/community; community/bureaucracy; and public/social - to trace successive struggles over the fortunes of a pu...

Purpose – This paper aims to explore activation policy as a condensate for new forms of governance in respect of welfare institutions and in relation to welfare subjects. It asks how far apparently similar concepts – contractualisation, individuation, personalisation – can be applied to the governance of institutions and the governance of persons....

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 th...

In its deployment of the language of democracy - devolution, participation, engagement, the ‘new localism’ - New Labour has frequently emptied it of all content. How can we put new life into this vocabulary, and into democratic practices?

New governance practices associated with the modernization of health systems within Europe focus on equipping health consumers with more information and power in their interactions with clinicians. This article uses material on health care reform in Britain and Germany to highlight ways in which consumerism is refracted through different institutio...

Public participation is central to a wide range of current public policies - not only in the UK, but elsewhere in the developed and the developing world. There are substantial aspirations for what enhanced participation can achieve. This book offers a critical examination of both the discourse and practice of participation in order to understand th...

This chapter outlines the development of different discourses of public participation and user and citizen empowerment in UK public policy and situates each in its international context, identifying core themes and drivers. The ‘empowered public’ discourse is not exclusively related to spatially located communities despite being the focus of much g...

This chapter considers two examples of initiatives that have even less of a profile within contemporary democratic practice: initiatives that are based around campaigns and policy making in relation to specific issues. These examples illustrate many similar issues in terms of the dynamics of the relationship between autonomous SMOs and the official...

This chapter discusses the means by which concerns about the management and government of public services have intersected with concerns about a decline in political participation. It describes the move to more inclusive forms of politics and decision-making that has derived from autonomous action among community, identity, and user groups. From a...

This chapter presents several questions that inform the analysis of specific case studies of public participation that are discussed in later chapters. Questions drawn from new institutional theory focus on the importance of studying how the rules and norms of deliberative practice are developed, negotiated, and contested within forums, and with wh...

This chapter discusses participation initiatives that are designed to contribute to the development of public services that are more responsive to their users. It traces the very different origins and histories of these initiatives, i.e. a community health forum involved in developing a community run health centre, a social services user group seek...

This chapter discusses neighbourhood-based participation, a major feature of public policy under the New Labour governments in the UK. It presents case studies examining the experiences of officials and parents in two different areas, exploring the purchase these official discourses have had on local participants, and their impact on the practices...

This conclusion discusses the transformatory potential of public participation, and its capacity to contribute to a process of political renewal. It argues that the aspirations highlighted may need to be tempered by an awareness of the institutional practices that constrain agency or produce a loss of trust. It emphasises the power of official disc...

Ethics has been addressed in health care, but relatively little attention has been paid to the subject in the social care sector. This book redresses the balance by examining theory, research, policy and practice in both fields. The importance of this approach is reflected in the growing emphasis on ethical issues in research and practice.

Public participation is central to a wide range of current public policies — not only in the UK, but elsewhere in the developed and the developing world. There are substantial aspirations for what enhanced participation can achieve. This book offers a critical examination of both the discourse and practice of participation in order to understand th...

This article begins with contemporary concerns about the demise of public institutions and public values. New strategies of governance across Europe and beyond make any clear delineation of ‘the public’ and the public sphere highly problematic. The modernization of welfare states involves a shift of powers from state to market, but also a shift of...

This chapter explores the role of conceptions of the consumer in the reform of public services in the United Kingdom. In such reforms the consumer has embodied both a specific vision of modernity and a model of the agentic ‘choice making’ individual. We examine the way that the figure of the consumer has been enrolled into political and governmenta...

The increasing emphasis on the citizen-consumer in the reform of public services in Britain and beyond is open to different interpretations. Within governance theory it might be understood as yet another phase of the continued blurring of distinctions between state and market, government and society. Alternatively it might be viewed as marking new...

Political, popular and academic debates have swirled around the notion of 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 t...

This article is based on empirical research into public participation in two English cities. It discusses issues related to motivations to take part in public participation initiatives and the way in which individual and collective identities may be constructed through participation. Drawing on social movement theory it emphasises the importance bo...

Introduction The current cycles of health service modernisation open up important questions about the future of the welfare state and of the solidaristic citizen identifications with which it is traditionally associated. The figure of the demanding citizen-consumer who strides assertively through the pages of policy documents and the scripts of min...

About the book: Social Policy Review provides students, academics and all those interested in welfare issues with detailed analyses of progress and change in areas of major interest during the past year. Bringing together a selection of commissioned papers, the Review is organised in three parts. First, it concentrates on the main policy developmen...

The modernisation of welfare states is high on the agenda of many European nations. The so-called ‘anglo-saxon’ model plays an important, but contradictory, symbolic role, as both a template for reform and as a symbol of the problems of neo-liberal governance. Rather than viewing the UK as an exemplar of neo liberalism, this paper highlights the un...