The Commodification of the Public Good

Papers and conversations on ‘The Commodification of the Public Good: who wins, who loses?

This workshop is stimulated by a pattern of development in the arrangements through which public goods and services are provided:

1. division of public services into products that may be traded in markets
2. reorganisation of public services into trading units with their own products and sometimes prices
3. use of trading to allocate benefits, determine costs, and manage risk in public service provision

This pattern is consistent with a commodification of the public good; that is, the transformation of public goods, services, ideas, values, evidence and publics themselves into objects of trade or exchange. A wide range of such developments include services such as home care visits, bus routes, and benefit medical assessments, funding such as tuition fees, water industry privatisation, and sale of social housing, business units such as NHS foundation trusts, central government agencies, and free schools, and commissioners such as clinical commissioning groups, police and crime commissioners, and rail franchisers. 

The workshop will ask at least the following sets of questions to enhance our state of knowledge and understanding and develop service provision and public benefit:

• What are the empirical manifestations of commodification?
• What are the impacts on service users and providers, content and outcomes?
• What are the philosophical, economic, social and political drivers of commodification?
• Who are the winners and losers of commodification?

Our workshop is designed to be ‘conversational’ limited to those providing a paper or to acting as a discussant and staying for the duration of the 1½ days.

Convenors

• Professor Andrew Gray, Emeritus Professor of Public Management Durham University, and principal of Academic Services for Public Management
• Dr Pauline Jas, Associate Professor in Public Policy, University of Nottingham
• Dr Simon Roberts Associate Professor of Public and Social Policy, University of Nottingham
• Professor Bruce Stafford: Emeritus Professor of Public Policy, University of Nottingham

For further information about the workshop please contact Dr Simon Roberts simon.roberts@nottingham.ac.uk