| Abstract: | Correspondence to John Harris, University of Warwick, Department of Social Policy and Social Work, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK. E-mail: J.Harris{at}warwick.ac.uk Summary Marshall's formulation of ‘social citizenship’ embodieda depoliticized understanding of what was seen as a given, progressiveand irreversible stage of societal development, which encompassedthe provision of state social work. A consequence of this approachwas the failure to situate social citizenship in a specificpolitical and policy context; in Marshall's case, the post-warBritish social democratic welfare state. Within this, a morecentral position was secured for state social work, throughits unification and incorporation into bureau-professional regimeswhich were made responsible for responding to citizens' socialneeds as clients of the state. The New Right's attack on theinstitutionalization of social citizenship in bureau-professionalregimes included the accusation that state social work had infringedservice users' rights and produced a passive, dependent clientele.The New Right's alternative formulation of the ‘consumer-citizen’led to the development of a new political consensus on socialcitizenship. Beginning from an acceptance of this consensus,procedural rights are seen as one way of extending social citizenshipin state social work and as a precursor to the possibility ofwider participation by service users in its provision. |
