Abstract
In the 1980s and 1990s, political parties began to enunciate new discourses in their appeals to citizens. In short, across the postindustrial states, the major parties began in earnest to place modernist concerns with self-realization at the centre of their public representations and, eventually, their social policies. Indeed, where the normalizing of the subpolitics of risk helped to cement new institutional arrangements of citizenship in horizontal governance networks, what was regarded at the time as a ‘new’ form of Third Way politics, ostensibly steering a course ‘between’ Left and Right, brought with it new types of social and political participation and new ‘stakeholder’ citizenship rights and duties. My point is that, although differing in important ways across different states, the major parties began in the 1990s to underplay appeals to citizens as the bearers of ‘liberal’ civil and political rights and duties and especially ‘social’ rights and duties in relation to the welfare state. Rather, the major parties took up new calls to ‘stakeholder’ citizens as the bearers of rights to wellbeing and security from risk and duties to be independent in relation to opportunities to participate in society. Later in this chapter, I look more closely at three examples of contemporary social practice — corporate social and environmental responsibility, green consumerism and the political use of liveability indices — and find that the new citizenship is indeed premised upon a holistic cultural ideology, as well as non-contractualism, non-territorialism, the dissolution of the public-private split and ethico-moral awareness of environmental problems such as risk or, even, ecospace.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
See, for example, S. Jenkins, Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts (London: Penguin Books, 2006);
D. Sassoon, One Hundred Years of Socialism: The West European Left in the Twentieth Century (London: I.B. Tauris, 2010);
J. Olsen, M. Koss, and D. Hough, ‘From Pariahs to Players? Left Parties in National Governments’, in Left Parties in National Governments, ed. J. Olsen, M. Koss, and D. Hough (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010);
T. Frank, What’s the Matter with Kansas? (New York: Vintage Books, 2004);
C. Hamilton, ‘What’s Left? The Death of Social Democracy’, Quarterly Essay, no. 21 (2006). J.C. Alexander, The Performance of Politics: Obama’s Victory and the Democratic Struggle for Power (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010);
2. See S. Buckler and D.P. Dolowitz, ‘Theorizing the Third Way: New Labour and Social Justice’, Journal of Political Ideologies 5, no. 3 (2000); H. Dean, ‘Popular Discourse and the Ethical Deficiency of “Third Way” Conceptions of Citizenship’, Citizenship Studies 8, no. 1 (2004); A. Giddens, The Third Way (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1998); J. Clarke, ‘New Labour’s Citizens: Activated, Empowered, Responsibilized, Abandoned?’, Critical Social Policy 25, no. 4 (2005); B. Burkitt and F. Ashton, ‘The Birth of the Stakeholder Society’, Critical Social Policy 16, no. 49 (1996);
A. Giddens, ‘The Politics of Climate Change: National Responses to the Challenge of Global Warming’ (London: Policy Network, 2008);
A. Giddens, The Politics of Climate Change (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2009).
A. Callinicos, Equality, Themes for the 21st Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2000), 41.
R. Prabhakar, ‘Stakeholding: Does It Possess a Stable Core?’, Journal of Political Ideologies 8, no. 3 (2003): 347.
T. Turner, ‘Shifting the Frame from Nation-State to Global Market’, Social Analysis 46, no. 2 (2002): 56, 68–9.
G. Kelly, D. Kelly, and A. Gamble. Stakeholder Capitalism (London: Macmillan, 1997), 44, 228.
A. Supiot, ‘Law and Labour: A World Market of Norms?’, New Left Review I, no. 39 (2006): 109, 18.
N. Boles, Which Way’s Up: The Future for Coalition Britain and How to Get There (London: Biteback Publishers, 2010), 9; Prime Minister’s Off ice, ‘Government Launches ‘Big Society’ Programme’, Office of the Prime Minister, http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/topstorynews/2010/05/big-society-50248; P. Totaro, ‘Britain Surprises with Carbon Plan’, The Age, May 21 2011.
L. Dumont, German Ideology: From France to Germany and Back (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1994 [1991]), 9.
P. Alston, ed., Labour Rights as Human Rights (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005);
S. Deakin and F. Wilkinson, The Law of the Market: Industrialization, Employment, and Legal Evolution (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005);
M. Freedland, The Personal Employment Contract (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003). P. Dwyer, ‘Conditional Citizens? Welfare Rights and Responsibilities in the Late 1990s’, Critical Social Policy 18, no. 4 (1998); Handler, ‘Reforming/Deforming Welfare’; P. Harris, ‘From Relief to Mutual Obligation: Welfare Rationalities and Unemployment in 20th-Century Australia’, Journal of Sociology 37, no. 1 (2001); Jessop, ‘The Changing Governance of Welfare: Recent Trends In Its Primary Functions, Scale and Modes of Coordination’; R. Sainsbury, ‘21st Century Welfare — Getting Closer to Radial Benefit Reform’, Public Policy Research 17, no. 2 (2010).
P. Rosanvallon, The New Social Question: Rethinking the Welfare State (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000 [1995]), 211.
B. Zimmerman, ‘Pragmatism and the Capability Approach: Challenges in Social Theory and Empirical Research’, European Journal of Social Theory 9, no. 4 (2006): 468.
van Steenbergen, ‘Towards a Global Ecological Citizen’, 47, 143–4; B.S. Turner, ‘The Erosion of Citizenship’, British Journal of Sociology 52, no. 2 (2001): 199.
J. Martinez-Alier, The Environmentalism of the Poor: A Study of Ecological Conflicts and Valuation (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2002), 5–10.
J. Barry, ‘Ecological Modernization’, in Debating the Earth, ed. J.S. Dryzsek and D. Schlosberg (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), 311.
J.S. Dryzek, Deliberative Democracy and Beyond: Liberals, Critics, Contestations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 143;
—, Politics of the Earth, 2nd ed . (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 167;
also, J. S. Dryzek et al., Green States and Social Movements: Environmentalism in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and Norway (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003).
J. Elkington, Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom-Line of 21st Century Business (Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers, 1997);
—, The Chrysalis Economy (Oxford: Capstone Press, 2001).
A. Salmon, La Tentation Éthique Du Capitalisme (Paris: La Découverte 2007);
—, Moraliser Le Capitalisme (Paris: CNRS Éditions, 2009).
Fiona Haddock, ‘Socially Responsible Companies: Corporate Angels’, Global Finance 13, no. 12 (1999): 24, 25.
G. Atkinson, ‘Measuring Corporate Sustainability’, Journal of Environmental Planning and Management 43, no. 2 (2000): 237.
Gilding, P. (2002) Single Bottom Line Sustainability, The Sydney Papers, no volume given: 53–60.
See, for example, A. Lagan, ‘a Revolution to Find Value in Common Ground’, Australian Financial Review, 29 May 2003, 23; S. Zuboff, ‘Evolving: A Call to Action’, Fast Company Social Capitalists Issue, no. 78 (2004): 97; R. Kelly, ‘Community Values Create Value’, Business Review Weekly, 16 January 2003, 447; C. Juniper and M. Moore, ‘Synergies and Best Practices of Corporate Partnerships for Sustainability’, Corporate Environmental Strategy 9, no. 3 (2002), 267–9;
R.P. Hill and D.L. Stephens, ‘The Compassionate Organisation in the 21st Century’, Organizational Dynamics 32, no. 4 (2003); 331–41;
M. Benioff and K. Southwick, Compassionate Capitalism: How Corporations Can Make Doing Good an Integral Part of Doing Well (New York: Career Press, 2003).
W. Lazonick and M. O’Sullivan, ‘Maximizing Shareholder Value: A New Ideology for Corporate Governance’, Economy and Society 29, no. 1 (2000); C. Stoney and D. Winstanley, ‘Stakeholding: Confusion or Utopia? Mapping the Conceptual Terrain’, Journal of Management Studies 38, no. 5 (2001): 608.
See A. Scerri, ‘Paradoxes of Increased Individuation and Public Awareness of Environmental Issues’, Environmental Politics 18, no. 4 (2009): 476.
T.P. Lyon and J.W. Maxwell, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility and the Environment: A Theoretical Perspective’, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 2, no. 2 (2008): 252.
P.R. Portney, ‘The (Not So) New Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Perspective’, Review of Environmental Economics and Policy 2, no. 2 (2008): 262, italics in original.
See M.L. Parry et al., eds., Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007).
A.P.J. Mol and G. Spaargaren, ‘Environment, Modernity and the Risk-Society’, International Sociology 8, no. 4 (1993): 357.
M. Schudson, ‘The Troubling Equivalence of Citizen and Consumer’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 608 (2006): 193–204.
G. Spaargaren, and A.P.J. Mol, ‘Greening Global Consumption: Redefining Politics and Authority’, Global Environmental Change 18, no. 2 (2008): 358, emphasis added.
E.F. Isin, ‘The Neurotic Citizen’, Citizenship Studies 8, no. 3 (2004): 226; Mol and Spaargaren, ‘Environment, Modernity and the Risk-Society’ 443–4.
K. Hobson, ‘Bins, Bulbs and Shower Timers: On the “Techno-Ethics” of Sustainable Living’, Ethics, Place & Environment 9, no. 3 (2006): 321
—, ‘Thinking Habits into Action: The Role of Knowledge and Process in Questioning Household Consumption Practices’ Local Environment $18, no. 1 (2003): 95–112, 110.
V. Timmer and N-K Seymoar, ‘Vancouver Working Group Discussion Paper’, in The World Urban Forum 2006 (Vancouver: UN Habitat — International Centre for Sustainable Cities, 2005);
National Endowment for the Arts, The NEA 1965–2000: A Brief Chronology of Federal Support for the Arts (Washington DC: NEA, 2000).
R. Veenhoven, ‘Happiness as an Indicator in Social Policy Evaluation: Some Objections Considered’, in Between Sociology and Sociological Practice, ed. K. Mesman Schultz et al. (Nijmegen: Institute for Applied Social Sciences, 1993); R. Veenhoven and J. Ehrhardt, ‘The Cross-National Pattern of Happiness: Test of Predictions Implied in Three Theories of Happiness’, Social Indicators Research 34, no. 1 (1995).
F. Fischer, Democracy & Expertise: Reorienting Policy Inquiry (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009).
See, for example, N. Casey, ‘Melbourne Benchmarking and Liveability’ (Melbourne: City of Melbourne, 2009);
—, ‘Melbourne City Research: International City Comparisons’ (Melbourne: City of Melbourne, 2011).
A. Desrosières, ‘Historiciser L’action Publique: L’Etat, Le Marche Et Les Statistiques’, in Historicites de l’action publique, ed. P. Laborier and D. Trom (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2003); P. Le Galès and A. Scott, ‘Une Revolution Bureaucratique Britannique? Autonomie Sans Controle Ou “Freer Markets, More Rules”’, Revue Française de Sociologie 49, no. 2 (2008); W. Espeland and M. Sauder, ‘Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds’, American Journal of Sociology 113, no. 1 (2007).
Copyright information
© 2012 Andy Scerri
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scerri, A. (2012). Not Just the Warm, Fuzzy Feeling You Get from Buying Free-Range Eggs …. In: Greening Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137010315_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137010315_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-43634-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-01031-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)