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Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services. / Stephen Howell

Swansea University Author: Stephen Howell

Abstract

This thesis critically examines the manner in which local authorities allocate and distribute their leisure services. A lack of coherence in the rationale for distributing the scarce resources of public leisure services currently exists. Moreover, no serious attempt has been made to articulate this...

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Published: 2007
Institution: Swansea University
Degree level: Doctoral
Degree name: Ph.D
URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa42733
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last_indexed 2019-10-21T16:48:22Z
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spelling 2018-08-17T10:49:29.6818674 v2 42733 2018-08-02 Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services. 6a01b0ec3c5b0811e56ff33bb6f4af8c NULL Stephen Howell Stephen Howell true true 2018-08-02 This thesis critically examines the manner in which local authorities allocate and distribute their leisure services. A lack of coherence in the rationale for distributing the scarce resources of public leisure services currently exists. Moreover, no serious attempt has been made to articulate this incoherence within an overarching theoretical framework. In establishing a coherent and defensible notion of social justice in the context of public leisure professionalism, public leisure services are interpreted within a range of traditionally conceived political conceptions of justice (Elster, 1992; Rawls, 1972; and Walzer, 1983). A communitarian account of just public leisure services is then presented which develops Elster's idea of 'local justice' while rejecting a liberal account. In order to establish claims regarding the incoherence of extant public leisure provision and the legitimacy of the proposed account, data were collected in the form of five semi-structured interviews with senior leisure professionals and elected officials taken from three local authorities. Arising from the data a taxonomy of mechanisms and preferences was established in order to characterise just public leisure services. A number of themes emerge from the data, the most critical of which relates to the misconception of 'public opinion' in the formulation of policy and practice or, at times, the complete absence of such. The data, however, revealed that what passed for 'public opinion' was in fact advocacy by organised self-interest groups. Given the political desirability, inherent within a communitarian account, for public involvement in debates within public leisure services these forces are antagonistic to 'public opinion' and undermine the operationalisation of local justice in public leisure. To overcome this weakness a communitarian model of allocative and distributive practice is developed. Following from this, it is argued public leisure services can be justly allocated and distributed according to schemes of local justice. It is concluded that public leisure services ought properly to provide non-standardised, locally derived, conceptualisations of justice that are ethically justifiable according to communitarian criteria. E-Thesis Public administration.;Sociology. 31 12 2007 2007-12-31 COLLEGE NANME Public Health and Policy Studies COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Doctoral Ph.D 2018-08-17T10:49:29.6818674 2018-08-02T16:24:30.2738035 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Health and Social Care - Public Health Stephen Howell NULL 1 0042733-02082018162517.pdf 10807502.pdf 2018-08-02T16:25:17.7130000 Output 7928464 application/pdf E-Thesis true 2018-08-02T16:25:17.7130000 false
title Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
spellingShingle Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
Stephen Howell
title_short Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
title_full Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
title_fullStr Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
title_full_unstemmed Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
title_sort Local justice and public sector professionalism: The case of leisure services.
author_id_str_mv 6a01b0ec3c5b0811e56ff33bb6f4af8c
author_id_fullname_str_mv 6a01b0ec3c5b0811e56ff33bb6f4af8c_***_Stephen Howell
author Stephen Howell
author2 Stephen Howell
format E-Thesis
publishDate 2007
institution Swansea University
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Health and Social Care - Public Health{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Health and Social Care - Public Health
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description This thesis critically examines the manner in which local authorities allocate and distribute their leisure services. A lack of coherence in the rationale for distributing the scarce resources of public leisure services currently exists. Moreover, no serious attempt has been made to articulate this incoherence within an overarching theoretical framework. In establishing a coherent and defensible notion of social justice in the context of public leisure professionalism, public leisure services are interpreted within a range of traditionally conceived political conceptions of justice (Elster, 1992; Rawls, 1972; and Walzer, 1983). A communitarian account of just public leisure services is then presented which develops Elster's idea of 'local justice' while rejecting a liberal account. In order to establish claims regarding the incoherence of extant public leisure provision and the legitimacy of the proposed account, data were collected in the form of five semi-structured interviews with senior leisure professionals and elected officials taken from three local authorities. Arising from the data a taxonomy of mechanisms and preferences was established in order to characterise just public leisure services. A number of themes emerge from the data, the most critical of which relates to the misconception of 'public opinion' in the formulation of policy and practice or, at times, the complete absence of such. The data, however, revealed that what passed for 'public opinion' was in fact advocacy by organised self-interest groups. Given the political desirability, inherent within a communitarian account, for public involvement in debates within public leisure services these forces are antagonistic to 'public opinion' and undermine the operationalisation of local justice in public leisure. To overcome this weakness a communitarian model of allocative and distributive practice is developed. Following from this, it is argued public leisure services can be justly allocated and distributed according to schemes of local justice. It is concluded that public leisure services ought properly to provide non-standardised, locally derived, conceptualisations of justice that are ethically justifiable according to communitarian criteria.
published_date 2007-12-31T03:53:32Z
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score 11.037603

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