Below the radar of public debate, the coalition government in the UK has published a white paper which visualises a state in which all public services are ‘personalised’ (with the exception of security, justice, and defence). I have mind-mapped the main ideas in Open Public Services White Paper Mind Map This policy position reflects the dilemmas discussed in our post on privacy, but on a state-wide scale.
From one point of view, the individual will be at the centre of their own social world and it expressions of dependency on others: but the socialising of welfare and of risk, especially at points of transition (in education, in health, in employment) will all be dismantled. Openness is synonymous with atomisation and fragmentation in this vision of society; fusing intimacy and neglect.
Slingshot