Purpose – To consider the extent to which regimes of performance measurement in the public sector are fit for purpose, and the likely outcomes for public services and public sector workers of such performance measurement systems.Design/methodology/approach – The article considers four key issues: the context and content of performance measurement in the public sector, the specific examples of health care and higher education, the limitations of performance measurement systems, and the likely outcomes of performance measurement systems.Findings – Current systems of performance measurement in the public sector are unlikely to have a significant influence on improving services. The most likely outcomes of these systems is further commodification of services and deprofessionalisation of public sector workers.Originality/value – The article builds on established literature and offers a systematic metaphor‐driven critique of performance management in the public sector, and discusses the implications of this.

The (un)intended outcome of public sector performance measurement

Framing prostitution as an economic exchange, this paper evaluates some of the consequences of conceiving of sex as a commodity rather than as an aspect of an intimate interpersonal relationship among the customers of prostitutes. Subjects were 700 men arrested while trying to hire street prostitutes. Questionnaires were administered prior to intervention programs designed to discourage re-offense in San Francisco, California (N=588); Portland, Oregon (N=82); and Las Vegas, Nevada (N=30). Significant predictors of conceiving of sex as a commodity included being unmarried, having served in the military, and more frequent visits to prostitutes. Conceiving of sex as a commodity significantly predicted rape myth acceptance, attraction to violent sexuality, less frequent use of condoms while with prostitutes, support for prostitution, and the attitude that prostitution is positive for women. We argue that that conceiving of sex as a commodity has a number of negative implications for the men involved, their sexual partners, and for gender relations in general. Keywords: Prostitution; Customers; Male Sexuality Though researchers and the popular media have shown great interest in prostitution and prostitutes themselves, very little attention has been paid to their male customers. Shrage (1992:42) notes the "relative absence of scientific studies concerned with the motivation and social characteristics of the customers of prostitutes." The scant research that does exist has tended to focus on health-related issues (Freund, Lee, and Leonard, 1991; Freund, Leonard and Lee, 1989) or has relied on small qualitative samples (Armstrong, 1978; Holzman and Pines, 1982; Prasad, 1999) or second-hand accounts (Boyle, 1995; Diana, 1985). There are several explanations for this neglect of male customers. Davis (1993) argues that the neglect of customers by researchers and policy-makers reflects a sexual double-standard in which women are seen as responsible for men's deviance. Prasad (1999) argues that the neglect of customers is consistent with the assumption that demand for prostitution is natural and inevitable among men. Other scholars emphasize the difficulty of collecting data on customers, who often make an effort to conceal their activities (McKeganey and Barnard, 1996; Special Committee on Prostitution and Pornography, 1985). Recently there has been increased interest in men's contribution to the problems associated with prostitution. Several communities now sponsor workshops or classes for men arrested while trying to hire prostitutes. The best known of these "john schools" is San Francisco's First Offenders Prostitution Program (FOPP), which sometimes has classes of over 50 men (Monto, 2000; 2004). This study employs data collected from the men attending these classes. This unprecedented access to a previously hidden population should allow us to step beyond conceptions of prostitution customers based on anecdotal accounts or theoretical assumptions. Framing prostitution as an economic exchange, this article evaluates the consequences of conceiving of sex as a commodity rather than an aspect of an intimate interpersonal relationship among the arrested customers of female street prostitutes. We explore factors associated with the development of a conception of sex as a commodity and the consequences that such an orientation has on customers' attitudes toward prostitution, prostitutes, sexuality, and violence. While recognizing that conceiving of sex as a commodity is not an inevitable outcome of patronizing prostitutes, we argue that this orientation has a number of negative implications for the men involved, their sexual partners, and for gender relations in general. PROSTITUTION AS AN ECONOMIC EXCHANGE Framing prostitution as an economic exchange provides a potentially rich source of insight into the nature of prostitution and the larger contexts in which the prostitution exchange takes place. …

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Conceiving of Sex as a Commodity: A Study of Arrested Customers of Female Street Prostitutes

In this paper the notion of an embedded system is developed as an analytic model to examine how state–nonprofit relations develop and become differentiated, using the case of HIV/AIDS nonprofit organizations. Drawing on extensive fieldwork among three prominent HIV/AIDS nonprofit organizations in New York City, this paper shows how the kinds of relationships these nonprofit organizations are likely to form with state agencies are based on their embeddedness in the state–nonprofit system of relations. Three forms of embeddedness are distinguished according to the type and regularity of state–nonprofit contact—direct, outsider, and mediating. Importantly, it is shown how the configuration of relations within which an organization is embedded determines many of the organization's constraints and opportunities.

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Embedded Systems: The Case of HIV/AIDS Nonprofit Organizations in New York City

Purpose To consider whether the growth in management and entrepreneurship education is driven by (external) demand or (internal) academic supply. Design/methodology/approach Three key elements of the intellectual context of management and entrepreneurship education are considered: the apparent causal relationship between improved management and economic performance; the privilege afforded to management as an agent of change in the context of globalisation; reforms in the public sector which define problems in terms of management rather than resources. Findings There is a lack of clarity as to whether the purpose of entrepreneurship education is about promoting higher levels of activity or better recognising entrepreneurial activity. Originality/value The paper offers an alternative perspective on entrepreneurship education through an examination of its purpose rather than its form and content.

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Insatiable demand or academic supply: the intellectual context of entrepreneurship education

This article examines current inconsistent trends in social welfare advocacy literature. Some studies show evidence of widespread engagement in advocacy by nonprofit organisations, while other studies conversely offer evidence of limited advocacy activities. Another controversial aspect stems from the question whether governmental funding undermines the extent to which nonprofits engage in advocacy. We argue that these findings reflect the contradictory impact of neoliberal governance on social welfare advocacy. The article highlights and discusses three interrelated components of neoliberalism and their impact on current social welfare advocacy: marketisation, precariousness and commodification. Neoliberalism has propelled a model of market-driven civil society that has remade the practice of social welfare advocacy in contradictory ways. With its complex rationales, neoliberalism has simultaneously undermined the ability of nonprofits to engage in advocacy but in a paradoxical way has also created conditions that induce these organisations to practice advocacy. Implications for practice and research on social welfare advocacy are discussed.

Liquid advocacy: Social welfare advocacy in neoliberal times

Private nonprofit organizations play a major role in delivering a range of publicly funded social services. Aggregate data from a recent Urban Institute study reveal that recent federal cutbacks have affected the services, programs and clients of NPOs. An examination of specific agencies in Maricopa County (Phoenix) reveals that many service providers have adopted a business approach to their services and clients, treating them as commodities. In general, agencies serving clients with Resource Mobilization Potential-youth and elderly-have fared better than those dealing primarily with poor adults.

David L. Altheide

Papers

Down to business: the commodification of nonprofit social services