Examines how official policy objectives can be 'subverted' through the actions of staff and users. This book 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.

This original and insightful reader provides a critical stock take of the state of user involvement and will be an important resource for students studying health and social care and social work, researchers and user activists.

The failure to care in 'care services' has been seen as a human rights problem, but care has also been implicated in the oppression of disabled people and demoted in favour of choice in health and social care services. Here, Marian Barnes argues for care as an essential value in private lives and public policies.

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 the significance of this explosion in participatory forums, and the extent to which such practices represent a fundamental change in governance. Based on 17 case studies across a range of policy areas in two English cities, the authors address key...