How do empty signifiers lose credibility? The caseof commissioning in English local government

Eleanor Mackillop

doi:10.1080/19460171.2016.1236740

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper critically analyzes how empty signifiers – demands which have been ‘tendentially’ emptied of meaning to represent an infinite number of demands – gain and lose credibility. I mobilize Laclauian discourse theory and a logics of critical explanation approach to examine the case of an English County Council and its Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) articulating ‘commissioning’ as an empty signifier in its new reform to address the Government’s post-2010 austerity agenda. The research characterizes how empty signifiers become formulated by discourses, gain appeal and lose credibility, demonstrating how such ‘universal’ demands require constant work from strategically placed individuals to avoid drifting into floating signifiers, i.e. becoming disputed. The paper makes two contributions: first to our understanding of how empty signifiers lose credibility; second, via its mobilization of concepts of empty and floating signifiers within a case study, into how ‘national’ signifiers such as commissioning have been mobilized by local authorities in diverse ways since the 2008 financial crash.

Highlights

As the 2008 financial crisis commenced, a new UK Liberal Democrat-Conservative Coalition government adopted a wide-ranging array of funding reductions which saw local government lose on average 27% of their budget
I mobilize Laclauian discourse theory and a logics of critical explanation approach to examine the case of an English County Council and its Local Strategic Partnership (LSP) articulating ‘commissioning’ as an empty signifier in its new reform to address the Government’s post-2010 austerity agenda
The research characterizes how empty signifiers become formulated by discourses, gain appeal and lose credibility, demonstrating how such ‘universal’ demands require constant work from strategically placed individuals to avoid drifting into floating signifiers, i.e. becoming disputed

Summary

Introduction

As the 2008 financial crisis commenced, a new UK Liberal Democrat-Conservative Coalition government adopted a wide-ranging array of funding reductions which saw local government lose on average 27% of their budget. The concept of commissioning became mobilized by many across public, private and voluntary organizations as a lauded solution to multiple local government problems of citizen participation, budget cuts, service delivery and collaboration (Bovaird, Dickinson, and Allen 2012; Cabinet Office 2010; Coulson 2004; Lowndes and Pratchett 2012; Murray 2009). Commissioning did not have an accepted definition, it referred to models of service design and delivery, bringing together ideas of collaboration with the third sector, privatization and citizen involvement (cf page 10 for longer discussion of commissioning). Commissioning looked ripe to become an empty signifier, which is why I selected it to discuss the question of empty signifiers, and how they lose credibility and become floating signifiers

MACKILLOP

Conclusion

Findings

Notes on contributor