Hi,
Thanks you Paul and many thanks also Mark. I've had a good look at the papers you linked to Mark and have arranged to get hold of the Epstein and Fine books.
You're absolutely right about thinking about voluntarism. I'm just trying to pull together something for a general audience about the strengths of a social compact based on voluntarism and also the limitations. I just have a feeling that there's something that might not be being quite picked up in criqitues I've read of the BS. There is a scattalogical joke there which I will leave to Craig as someone who could deliver it with more flair.
Many, many thanks again.
John McGowan
________________________________
From: Paul Moloney [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Sun 13/03/2011 2:43 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [COMMUNITYPSYCHUK] Critiques of the Big society
Hi John / All,
I'm not sure if the following references cover all of the territory in which you are interested (and of course you may already have come across them), but it sounds as if you are looking in part for critiques of the idea of social capital and of voluntarism / localism as supposed solutions to longstanding social and political problems.
For an excellent critique of much of the thinking and research in the field of voluntary / charitable action and of ill thought out government 'anti-poverty' programmes
see...
Epstein, W. (2002) American Policy Making: Welfare as Ritual. Boulder. Rowman and Littlefield.
Epstein, W. (2010) Democracy without Decency: Good Citizenship and the War on Poverty. Pennsylvania. Penn State University Press.
Epstein is writing from an almost entirely American perspective, but his basic arguments are relevant to the British scene, particularly in the context of the 'Big Society'.
For strong critiques of social capital both as social science and as a covert right wing ideology , see...
McLean, S. and Schultz, D. and Steger, M. (2002) (Editors) Critical Perspectives on Community and "Bowling Alone". New York. New York University Press.
Fine, B (2010) Theories of Social Capital. Researchers Behaving Badly. London. Pluto.
I hope that this helps.
Regards
Paul
> Date: Fri, 11 Mar 2011 10:58:48 +0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Critiques of the Big society
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Hi,
> Apologies in advance as this has probably been discussed and I've missed
> it. I was wondering if someone could point me in the direction of
> critiques around the Big Society concept (such as it is). Specifically
> around the balance of what should be held by the state and what should
> be held by other sectors and also the need for the state as a way of
> stimulating voluntary activity.
>
> Many thanks in advance.
>
> John McGowan
>
> ___________________________________
> The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at:
> http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/
> There is a threaded discussion forum:
> http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi
> There is a twitter feed:
> http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK
> To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below.
> David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
> To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
> http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
___________________________________ The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/ There is a threaded discussion forum: http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi There is a twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below. David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask]) To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
___________________________________
The Community Psychology List has a new website/blog at:
http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/
There is a threaded discussion forum:
http://www.communitypsychology.co.uk/cgi-bin/discus/discus.cgi
There is a twitter feed:
http://twitter.com/CommPsychUK
To post on the website blog, forum or twitter feed, contact Grant or David at the email addresses below.
David Fryer ([log in to unmask]) or Grant Jeffrey ([log in to unmask])
To unsubscribe or to change your details on this COMMUNITYPSYCHUK list, visit the website:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=COMMUNITYPSYCHUK
|