Discriminating Customers, Responsible Patients, Empowered Users

Consumerism and the Modernisation of Health Care

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2114759
AutoresJanet Newman (0000-0003-2666-3219, The Open University), Elizabeth Vidler (The Open University)
Ano2006
Volume35
Fascículo2
Páginas193-209
Data de publicação2006-04-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Social Policy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-2794 • E-ISSN: 1469-7823
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0047279405009487
OpenAlexW2125158172
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas65
Referências citadas4

The centrality of patient choice in the recent political rhetoric of both New Labour and the Conservative Party has prompted a renewed interest in the shift towards a more consumerist conception of health care in the UK. Accordingly, this article reports on early findings from a project in the ESRC/AHRB Cultures of Consumption Programme, exploring how the 'consumer' is constituted in narratives of health reform, and the ways in which policy documents present a particular image of the consumer as a rationale for institutional and cultural change. The article then goes on to look at the ways in which service delivery organisations have responded to New Labour's consumerist imperative. Drawing upon a series of interviews with senior health care managers in two case study locations, the article highlights ways in which choice, responsibility and empowerment have become critical points at which a consumerist orientation is articulated with established professional cultures, and how health organisations have experienced - and attempted to resolve - the tensions that result

Advertising · Business · Consumer Culture · Consumerism · Consumption (sociology) · Empowerment · Health care · Modernization theory · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Rhetoric · Social science · Sociology · Foucault, Power, and Ethics · Healthcare innovation and challenges · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Public Administration