The user of educational services

The user is a person expressing a demand for services. In the past there was no prevailing production of services, and the figure of the user was introduced to make a distinction from consumer and entrepreneur who expressed a demand for material goods and capitals. The users, on the contrary, demand services and immaterial capitals (education, health and so on). Today the prevailing production is that of immaterial goods and the processes of accumulation of immaterial capitals are acquiring greater importance than those for accumulation of material capitals. The figures of user thus become more complex, assuming different roles and objectives in relation to the theoretical model to which it refers. Here we shall analyse the role of the user of educational services in three theoretical models. The user will therefore be considered as an “agent” in the model of human capital, as an “interested party” (stakeholder) with a strategic role in the managerial model that seeks maximum quality, and finally we will have the user of educational services in the capabilities approach whom we indicate as a “person”. It follows that the user is utilizable in given contexts and theoretical models that, however, require clear identification as, otherwise, the user, in an analysis of knowledge economy, can no longer be seen as an operator able to explain how the economic system evolves.