This research project was funded by the ESRC and AHRB under the 'Cultures of Consumption' research programme. It ran from April 2003 until May 2005. The project team was John Clarke, Janet Newman, Nick Smith, Elizabeth Vidler and Louise Westmarland in the Department of Social Policy at the Open University. The project explored changing relationships and identifications in the intersection between the public and public services. It studied three different services: health care, policing and social care in a period when public services were being urged to treat people who used services as consumers.

On these pages you can find details of the project design; a summary findings paper; more detailed data from the project; a list of the main outputs from the study; and some downloadable papers arising from the study.