Why

Language and Politics

Terms and their meanings are contentious in many areas including consumer participation. Worthy of mention is the relationship between tokenism, stereotyping and participation.

Tokenism is the expedient inclusion into a mainstream body of a representative from a socially marginalized group. Even legitimate attempts to include the consumer perspective in the planning and delivery of services run the risk of tokenism. This is due to the way in which consumers are perceived within the services that they use (Epstein & Olsen, "An introduction to consumer politics" in Advanced practice in mental health nursing, p.8).

The topic of "language" has been thoughtfully presented in the following resource

Pinches, Allan (retrieved 10/6/99) What's in a name? Well, when it comes to that widely detested tag 'consumer', quite a lot, actually.

Politics of consumer participation are discussed in the the following resources all of which are available for use in the Library of the NRCCPH or by contacting the Centre on its free call line 1800 625 619.

Dwyer, Judith (1998) "The politics of participation" in Community Health Studies Vol X111No. 1 pp. 59-65.

Draper, Mary (1997) Involving consumers in improving hospital care: lessons from Australian hospitals.

Involving consumers in improving hospital care (PDF, 328KB)

Epstein, M and Olsen, Anne M. (1999) An introduction to consumer politics in Advanced practice in mental health nursing.

Hogg, Christine (1999) Patients, power & politics: from patients to citizens, SAGE Publications, London.

Macklin, Jenny (1989) National health strategy: Healthy participation. Achieving greater public participation and accountability in the Australian health care system.