P63 - Understanding Hybrid Publics
PANEL Organizer
• Clarke Andrew (a.clarke4@uq.edu.au), School of Social Science, The University of Queensland (Australia)
SUMMARY
As policy discourses develop and change so do the images of the public(s) that they target and help bring into being (Miller & Rose 2008; Newman & Clarke 2009). In recent times we have seen a proliferation of terms for designating publics within policy discourses, such as consumers, customers, stakeholders, communities and many others. These terms do not merely replace one another, rather they interact and hybridise in ways that often alter their traditional, taken-for-granted meanings and enactments (Clarke et al. 2007; Newman & Clarke 2009). Hence we now see reference by governmental policies and agents to citizen-consumers, consumers as (co-)producers, cities and communities as customers, nations as communities, and communities of nations. The aim of this panel is to interrogate the hybrid publics imagined and enacted by contemporary governmental and institutional policies. I welcome papers that address the following (or related) questions: How are formerly distinct conceptions of publics being blended with one another in different policy contexts? What do hybrid conceptions of publics tell us about the changing political rationalities that underpin particular policy programmes and agendas? What role do institutions and their operational policies play in the hybridisation of publics? How are hybrid publics enacted “on the ground” and what roles do the individuals and groups that they target play in determining their form and trajectory? What are the consequences of blending distinct/opposing conceptions of the public for the policy programmes that advance them? This panel strongly aligns with the conference theme, "Policies and their Publics", and particularly strongly with sub-theme b) "policy categories and identities".
References Clarke, J., et al. (2007). Creating citizen-consumers. London: Sage.
Miller, P., & Rose, N. (2008). Governing the present. Cambridge: Polity.
Newman, J., & Clarke, J. (2009). Publics, politics and power. London: Sage.
KEY WORDS
Hybrid publics, policy categories, identities, subjectivities, political rationalities.
ROOM
Sciences Po Lille B2.2
SESSION 1 : 9/07/15 : 09:00-10:30
Chair: Andrew Clarke (a.clarke4@uq.edu.au), University of Queensland (Australia)
• Overcoming difference: Talk of citizens and consumers in a `stakeholder dialogue' on the future of livestock farming
Margit Van Wessel(margit.vanwessel@wur.nl), Wageningen University (Netherlands)
• Aporias of transparency: Designating publics and their rights in the recent Italian reform of administrative transparency
Luigi Ferrara (luigi.ferrara@unina.it), University of Naples Federico II (Italy) and Francesco Rota (franrota@unisannio.it), University of Sannio (Italy)
• Energy saving policies: A study of public's discursive practices
Mathieu Brugidou (mathieu.brugidou@edf.fr), EDF Research and Development, PACTE (France)
• Customer Orientation Policy and the Enactment of Hybrid Publics in Regulatory Services
Andrew Clarke (a.clarke4@uq.edu.au), University of Queensland (Australia)
