ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores that a diversity of pro-public opinion and action is a positive and necessarily dynamic feature of an effective and sustainable pro-public movement, contributing to the strength and durability required to remake and rebuild more equitable and sustainable public services in the future. It sheds light on evolving pro-public movement, showcasing the demands that are being made for pro-public reforms in different parts of the world and assessing their implications for the future of public services. The book presents a historical review of the emergence of the word “public” within market economies, and how it has manifested itself in the meaning and practice of public services in our contemporary “bourgeois public sphere”. It then offers tentative proposals for rethinking the meaning of public services, and reviewing options for who delivers them.
