Making connections: supporting new forms of engagement by marginalised groups
Making connections: supporting new forms of engagement by marginalised groups
This chapter explores the implications of two competing discourses on participation: the consumerist discourse and one concerned with empowerment, democratization, and liberation. These discourses are situated in the context of their relationship to welfare provision and changes therein since the 1980s. Drawing on recent research, the chapter connects participation in political activity with the development of movements of people using health and social care services. It discusses the implications these may have for the nature of involvement and, indeed, of democracy. The chapter therefore illustrates some of the more theoretical issues about the role of service users, and the knowledge they contribute to policy and practice processes that were raised in Chapter Four. It also considers the changing role of care professionals in relation to forms of participation that can liberate and empower rather than constructing people who use services or give care/support solely as consumers in a care market.
Keywords: empowerment, democratization, liberation, welfare provision, political activity, care professionals
Policy Press Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs, and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
