“COMMODIFYING” CHILDREN: THE IMPACT OF MARKETS IN SERVICES FOR CHILDREN IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the impact on children’s health and well-being resulting from the move from the Welfare State to welfare markets and explores the political trajectory that stimulated this sea change in U.K. welfare. Two services, child protection and children’s day care, are examined to highlight how the separation of purchasing services from providing them have “commodified” children who have become objects with a use-value in commercial exchanges in internal or external markets. The paper concludes with an overview of the impact of “austerity” policies that exclude many children from welfare markets entirely and considers the consequences for the children of the U.K.
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Copyright (c) 2015 Stephanie Petrie

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