Pflieger, Géraldine (2003) Consumer, Customer, Citizen: the User within the New Governance System of Network Services. The Cases of Water, Electricity and Telecommunications Utilities in France. PhD thesis Urbanisme-Aménagement, ENPC.

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Abstract

Since the early 90's, the liberalization process, the new regulation schemes and the transformation of State and local authorities positions have implied a mutation in the historical models of governance of water, electricity and telecommunications utilities. Meanwhile, firms have undertaken organizational reforms in order to promote commercial strategies and demand-side management. Based on a method of political sociology, this dissertation aims to analyze how the new strategies and practices of the different stakeholders - i.e. State, local authorities, regulatory bodies, firms and consumer organizations - tends to modify the user's status. This is achieved through the construction of three theoretical figures of the user: the consumer, the customer and the citizen. The results underline that the deregulation reforms induce the domination of the consumer figure. This transformation can be illustrated by the rise of consumption issues such as cost and price transparency, performance assessment, quality standards and individual consumers' protection. However, the domination of the consumer doesn't imply the exclusion of citizenship issues. Obviously, social and spatial cohesion, which were at the heart of the French model of public service built after WWII, are now seldom included in the claims of consumer groups. But, new issues are emerging quickly, focused on two main subjects: the environmental protection and the management transparency of municipal utilities.

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