Working Relationally with Clients

Abstract

In this chapter I outline some of the versions of participation that can be seen in welfare policy. I then discuss how relational agency, and the Vygotskian ideas in which it has originated, can offer a way of thinking about how people engage with their worlds, which recognises their engaged agency and their contribution to the expertise that is distributed across systems. Topics covered in the chapter include how current welfare policies emphasise personal responsibility, the limitations of approaches to encouraging the participation of service users in, e.g., the evaluation of services, participation as co-configuration or co-production, connecting co-configuration with Vygotskian ideas on learning and with relational agency, and working with the expertise of those who use services.