The Dialectics of Equity: Consumer Citizenship and the Extension of Water Supply in Medellín, Colombia

Abstract

In light of neoliberal prescriptions for a business-like approach to public service provision, researchers and activists have voiced strong opposition to treating citizens as consumers. On one side of the debate, it is argued that a consumer model for public services will lead to more responsible consumption, better allocation of resources, and improved accountability. On the other, such a model is said to jeopardize both the equity and quality of essential services. Yet, both of these perspectives rest on a binary analysis of consumption and citizenship that is not sustained by empirical observation. This article draws on studies of consumption in sociology and geography as well as a case study of water services in Medellín, Colombia, to explore the potential for a dialectical consumer citizen approach to public services. I argue that, for water supply, such an approach—rather than one that prioritizes either end of an often unhelpful binary—offers opportunities for regulated solidarity and differential responsibility in the achievement of collective goals. This means recognizing the role of the state in consumption, the unevenness of citizenship, and the limits of “choice.”

对于新自由主义提倡如同商业般的公共服务供给方式, 研究者和社会运动者表达了强烈反对将公民视为消费者的声音。在此一辩论中, 一方主张公共服务的消费者模式将促成更负责任的消费、更佳的资源配置, 并促进责任制。另一方则主张, 此一模式同时损害了平等与基本服务的品质。但上述两方视角皆立基于对消费和公民权的二元对立分析, 并无法由经验观察证实之。本文运用社会学与地理学的消费研究, 以及哥伦比亚麦德林水资源供给的案例分析, 探讨关于公共服务的辩证消费者公民取径之潜能。我主张, 对水资源供给而言, 此一取径——而非优先考量任何一方且经常是无益的二元对立——为达成共同目标时规则化的团结以及差异化的责任提供了机会。而这也意味着认识国家在消费中的角色、不均的公民权, 以及“选择”的侷限。

A la luz de las prescripciones neoliberales por un enfoque de estilo empresarial en la prestación del servicio, investigadores y activistas han presentado una fuerte oposición a que se trate a los ciudadanos como simples consumidores. En un lado del debate, se arguye que la aplicación de un modelo de consumidor en los servicios públicos llevará a un consumo más responsable, una mejor asignación de recursos y a una mayor responsabilidad. En el otro, se dice que tal modelo pone en peligro tanto la equidad como la calidad de los servicios esenciales. Con todo, ambas perspectivas descansan en un análisis binario de consumo y ciudadanía que la observación empírica no lo respalda. Este artículo se apoya en estudios sobre el consumo en sociología y geografía, lo mismo que en un estudio de caso relacionado con los servicios de agua en Medellín, Colombia, para explorar el potencial de una dialéctica del enfoque del ciudadano como consumidor de los servicios públicos. Yo sostengo que, para el suministro de agua, tal tipo de enfoque—más que uno, a menudo inútil, que otorgue prioridad a cualquiera de los extremos de un binario—ofrece oportunidades para una solidaridad regulada y responsabilidad diferencial en el logro de metas colectivas. Esto significa reconocer el papel del estado en el consumo, la desigualdad de la ciudadanía y los límites de la “escogencia.”

Key Words:

• Colombia
• consumer citizen
• neoliberalism
• public services
• water

关键词:

• 哥伦比亚
• 消费者公民
• 新自由主义
• 公共服务
• 水。

Palabras clave:

• Colombia
• ciudadano consumidor
• neoliberalismo
• servicios públicos
• agua

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Catalina Bonilla Agudelo and Camilo Palacio for administering the survey, Anna Sofía Uribe P. and Evelio Gomez for their insights and support, Juan Aristizabal for research assistance in Medellín, and the helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers. This research was funded through a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada postdoctoral fellowship and subsequently through the Fonds de Recherche du Québec–Société et la Culture (FRQSC) Établissement de nouveaux professeurs-chercheurs funding program.

Notes

1. Comunas are administrative subdivisions of municipalities and are made up of several barrios. Medellín has sixteen comunas with ten to twenty-three barrios each.

2. See Zeiderman (2012) for a discussion of settlement patterns under rapid urbanization in the Colombian context.

3. All in-text monetary data were corrected for inflation using consumer price index data from Colombia's national statistics bureau DANE and reflects 2010 values. All monetary data in tables and figures were corrected to 2008 values using data from the Banco de la República (http://www.banrep.gov.co/series-estadisticas/see_precios_ipc.htm, last accessed 14 January 2012).

4. This figure was calculated using EPM annual reports from 1970 to 2011. The data were not reported in every annual report prior to 1970.

5. These include Luces Navedeñas.