Subversive citizens : : Power, agency and resistance in public services / / ed. by Marian Barnes, David Prior.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Bristol University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-1995
• MitwirkendeR: Barnes, Marian,; Burford, Gale,; Clarke, John,; Flint, John,; Hughes, Nathan,; Hunter, Shona,; Morris, Kate,; Newman, Janet,; Nixon, Judy,; Parr, Sadie,; Prior, David,; Sullivan, Helen,; Westmarland, Louise,
• HerausgeberIn: Barnes, Marian,; Prior, David,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol : : Policy Press, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (248 p.)

Many of the recent reforms in public services in the UK have been driven by the image of the 'responsible citizen' - the service user who does not only have rights to receive services but also has responsibilities for the delivery of policy outcomes. In this way, citizens' everyday conduct is shaped by governmental action, yet there is much evidence that both front-line staff in public services and the people who use them can sometimes act in ways that modify, disrupt or negate intended policy outcomes. Subversive citizens presents a highly original examination of how official policy objectives can be 'subverted' through the actions of staff and users. It discusses the role of public policy in the creation of 'good citizenship', such as making appropriate choices about what to eat and how much to save, to being an active participant in the local community. It also examines how the roles of service delivery staff have changed substantially, and how theories of 'power' and 'agency' are useful in analysing the engagement between public policies (and those employed to deliver them) and the citizens at whom they are targeted. The idea of subversive citizenship is explored through theoretical and empirical analyses by a range of prominent social researchers and will be of interest to students of social policy, sociology, criminology, politics and related disciplines, as well as policy makers involved in public services.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Contents -- List of figures and tables -- Notes on contributors -- Introduction -- Examining the idea of ‘subversion’ in public services -- Perspectives on subversive citizenship -- Policy, power and the potential for counter-agency -- Alliances, contention and oppositional consciousness: can public participation generate subversion? -- Subversive spheres: neighbourhoods, citizens and the ‘new governance’ -- Narrating subversion, assembling citizenship -- Subversive subjects and conditional, earned and denied citizenship -- Subversive citizens in public service settings -- Family intervention projects: sites of subversion and resilience -- Family decision making: new spaces for participation and resistance -- Subversive attachments: gendered, raced and professional realignments in the ‘new’ NHS -- Managerialism subverted? Exploring the activity of youth justice practitioners -- Awkward customers? Policing in a consumer age -- Conclusion -- ‘Subversion’ and the analysis of public policy -- References -- Index