Abstract
This chapter focusses on the commodification of public services. It looks at how forms of labour originally created in order to provide social reproduction services to citizens are becoming the basis for new capitalists and, in the process, transforming public service work into capitalist service work in a dynamic restructuring involving decommodification, commodification and recommodification.
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Notes
- 1.
This chapter draws inter alia on previously published material, in particular Huws, U. (2008) ‘The New Gold Rush: Corporate Power and the Commodification of Public Sector Work’, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 2 (2): 1–8 and Huws, U. (2012) ‘Crisis as Capitalist Opportunity: New Accumulation Through Public Service Commodification’, Socialist Register, 48: 64–84.
- 2.
Huws, U. (2012) ‘Crisis as Capitalist Opportunity: New Accumulation Through Public Service Commodification’, Socialist Register, 48: 64.
- 3.
Huws, U. (1985) ‘A Very Ordinary Picket’, New Socialist, January: 8–10.
- 4.
Equal Opportunities Commission, The Gender Impact of CCT in Local Government, Manchester: Equal Opportunities Commission, 1995.
- 5.
Subsequently, this process culminated in the 2006 Services Directive (2006/123), which came into force on December 28, 2009, effectively removing any national barriers within the EU to companies wishing to tender for public services.
- 6.
UNCTAD (2004) World Investment Report 2004: The Shift Towards Services, New York and Geneva: United Nations.
- 7.
Note the definition of ‘public sector’ used here excludes some groups, such as General Practitioners working for the National Health Service, University employees and outsourced workers, because they are not direct government employees, even though they are paid from public funds.
- 8.
Cribb, J., Disney, R., & Sibieta, L. (2014) The Public Sector Workforce: Past, Present and Future, IFS Briefing Note BN145, London: Institute for Fiscal Studies: 7.
- 9.
In 1979, men made up 54% of the UK public sector workforce, compared with 65% in the private sector. By 1997, the proportion of men in the public sector had fallen further to just 38%, compared with 58% in the private sector (Cribb, Disney & Sibieta, 2014: 17).
- 10.
Trading Economics (2018) United Kingdom Government Spending to GDP. Accessed on October 1, 2018 from: https://tradingeconomics.com/united-kingdom/government-spending-to-gdp.
- 11.
Cribb, J., Disney, R., & Sibieta, L. (2014), The Public Sector Workforce: Past, Present and Future, IFS Briefing Note BN145, London: Institute for Fiscal Studies: 9.
- 12.
Cribb, J., Disney, R., & Sibieta, L. (2014) The Public Sector Workforce: Past, Present and Future, IFS Briefing Note BN145, London: Institute for Fiscal Studies: 17.
- 13.
Ibid.
- 14.
Julius, D. (2008) Public Services Industry Review, London: Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
- 15.
National Audit Office (2013) The Role of Major Contractors in the Delivery of Public Services, Memorandum for Parliament, HC 810 Session 2013–14, November 12: 5.
- 16.
National Audit Office (2013) The Role of Major Contractors in the Delivery of Public Services, Memorandum for Parliament, HC 810 Session 2013–14, November 12: 58.
- 17.
See, for instance, Dahlmann, S. (2008) ‘The End of the Road, No More Walking in Dead Men Shoes: IT Professionals’ Experience of Being Outsourced to the Private Sector’, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 2 (2): 148–161.
- 18.
C. Leys (2003) Market-Driven Politics, London: Verso.
- 19.
A. Hochschild (1983) The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling, Berkeley: University of California Press.
- 20.
The International Organization for Standardization, which has 2700 technical committees, subcommittees and working groups, sets international technical standards for a large range of different industrial processes. The existence of these standards means that it is possible to trade with, or outsource to, an ISO-certified company in the confidence that the outputs will be predictable and standardized, removing the need for detailed supervision, in just the same way that, for instance, electrical standards make it possible to plug an appliance into a standard socket in the confidence that it will function correctly.
- 21.
- 22.
Dahlmann, S. (2008), ‘The End of the Road, No More Walking in Dead Men Shoes: IT Professionals’ Experience of Being Outsourced to the Private Sector’, Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation, 2 (2): 148–161.
- 23.
Butler, P. (2015) ‘Sanctions: Staff Pressured to Penalise Benefit Claimants, Says Union’, The Guardian, February 3. Accessed on October 6, 2018 from: https://www.theguardian.com/society/patrick-butler-cuts-blog/2015/feb/03/sanctions-staff-pressured-to-penalise-benefit-claimants-says-union.
- 24.
Doeringer, P. B. & Piore, M. J. (1971) Internal Labor Markets and Manpower Analysis, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company.
- 25.
H. Reed (2011) The Shrinking State: Why the Rush to Outsource Threatens Our Public Services, London: A report for Unite by Landman Economics: 13.
- 26.
H. Reed (2011) The Shrinking State: Why the Rush to Outsource Threatens Our Public Services, London: A report for Unite by Landman Economics: 18.
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Huws, U. (2019). Commodification of Public Services. In: Labour in Contemporary Capitalism. Dynamics of Virtual Work. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52042-5_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52042-5_6
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