ABSTRACT
One of the consequences of rationalisation and asset sales is that an increasing proportion of the population are forced to become self-reliant in meeting their welfare needs. In the case of private sector services this has been termed self-provisioning (Urry, 1987). Examples of self-provisioning have included the use of home enter ta inment rather than l ive spectacles, microwaveable meals rather than eating out and washing machines rather than use of laundries (Gershuny and Miles, 1983). In the context of the public sector services self-provisioning entails a shift back to provision by families, relatives, friends and others in local communities. Where the services are reallocated back to the responsibility of family labour, this process may also be termed domestication (Urry, 1987). As indicated in Chapter 1, familes and members of local neighbourhoods have long been the major source of welfare provision but we have relatively little knowledge of the capacity of different types of community to cope with service cuts.
