Redefining ‘Public Service’ in the Water Industry: Understanding the Role of the State

Abstract

There has recently developed an increasing interest in the way in which the ‘culture’ of public service has been transplanted by cultures and discourses of ‘competition’ and ‘consumerism’ within public service organisations. The literature has focused on the way in which the restructuring and privatisation of public services has resulted in the ‘commercialisation’ of social relations both with public service organisations and between public service organisations and their consumers. The Foucaultian premises of much of this literature has prevented a thorough empirical assessment of the material dynamics through which notions of public service has been contested and reinterpreted; and in particular the important role of state legislation and regulation in this process. This is the central theoretical problem addressed by this paper.

Citation

Taylor, G. (1994), "Redefining ‘Public Service’ in the Water Industry: Understanding the Role of the State", Management Research News, Vol. 17 No. 7/8/9, pp. 68-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb028366