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Socio-Spatial Variations in Community Self-Help: A Total Social Organisation of Labour Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2011

Colin C. Williams*
Affiliation:
School of Management, University of Sheffield E-mail: C.C.Williams@sheffield.ac.uk

Abstract

Previous studies have suggested that community self-help in affluent populations revolves around engagement in formal community-based groups, whilst the participatory culture of deprived populations is more orientated towards informal (one-to-one) community participation. Reporting the findings of 861 face-to-face interviews conducted in affluent and deprived urban and rural English communities, and reading participation in community self-help through the lens of a ‘total social organisation of labour’ perspective, this article transcends this dichotomous depiction and provides a finer-grained more multi-layered mapping of the multifarious varieties of community self-help and its socio-spatial variations. The article concludes by exploring the implications for theory, practice and policy.

Type
Themed Section on Remixing the Economy of Welfare? Changing Roles and Relationships between the State and the Voluntary and Community Sector
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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