Unnaming of, and other provocations to, the ‘service user’ name, or label

This conceptual article supplements critiques of the ‘service user’ label by reading it through poststructuralist-shaped lenses which regard meaning and ‘truth’ as unstable products of language, discourse, and power. This critique develops through four provocations: (1) the ‘service user’ does not exist; (2) the ‘service user’ is a by-product of the service provider, and as the ‘service user’ justifies this, so a supporting cast of other others (for example, social workers, carers, support workers and so on) is (in)validated, albeit while crucially justifying the marketplace and the neoliberal conditions that ‘service user’ discourse registers/generates; (3) the ‘service user’ cannot speak; and (4) it is argued that unnaming the ‘service user’ is a vital prerequisite for effective voice and ethical (inter)relations. Such provocations are intended to support destabilising seemingly natural connections between words and the world and to denaturalise practices that ‘service user’ discourse informs and is informed by.