ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at some of the ways in which institutions construct clients. It focuses on the construction of the 'client' as the 'other' in each of the relationships. The bureaucratic process can be looked at as a process in which 'all' citizens can potentially become clients, a taxpayer, a registered patient, a licensed driver, an unemployed citizen. The chapter looks at how the client types are constructed in 'bureaucratic' situations. It then focuses on a disciplinary situation, a situation where a client applies for an entitlement and a situation where the institution volunteers information to make clients institutionally literate. The information-seeking role of institutions through application forms and their information-providing role are multi-functionally targeted at certain client types. Institutions operate with certain assumptions about the client's people address and process. Institutional assumptions about client categories have implications for the kinds of application forms which are used and for the questions which are put to applicants in a particular form.
