From Users and Choosers to Makers and Shapers

Summaries This article explores approaches to participation in social policy, setting them within broader debates on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship. Drawing on studies of participation in a range of social policy arenas in the North and South, it explores the implications of a shift from a focus on clients or consumers of social policies as users and choosers to a more active engagement of citizens as agents in the making and shaping of the social policies that affect their lives.