Introduction

Policy and academic debate in the UK and internationally on the third sector has ascribed it myriad roles in, and emphasised its positive contribution to, public policy delivery, civil society, civil renewal, social inclusion, neighbourhood renewal and community cohesion. The aim of this chapter is to review some of these debates, with respect to community cohesion, to problematise certain policy and academic positions, and to outline future directions for investigation.

The focus of the chapter is on the contribution of the third sector to cohesion in deprived neighbourhoods. Clearly, the sector plays active roles in different policy domains and at different territorial levels. For instance, third-sector organisations such as Liberty and Searchlight operate in quite different ways in the field of community cohesion at a national (UK) level. These are not, however, the focus of this chapter, which examines organisations that operate within, and are often part of, local neighbourhoods.

Common themes around the contribution of the third sector include its roles in: promoting civic participation; providing forms of associative democracy as proxy representatives of different social, cultural, ethnic or faith groups; and, more recently, public service delivery. For Deakin (2001) these themes are outlined respectively as civil society and democracy, civil society and community, and civil society, charity and welfare. Policy statements by the UK government have reflected and promoted some of these themes, for instance in the Cross-cutting review of the role of the voluntary and community sector in the delivery of public services (HM Treasury, 2002) and more recently The future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration (Office of the Third Sector, 2007). In this latter report, four common goals for government and the sector are defined: enabling voice and campaigning; strengthening communities; transforming public services; and encouraging social enterprise – echoing some of Deakin's themes.

Other chapters in this volume have documented and analysed the emergence of community cohesion as a policy discourse in the UK. Prima facie such discourse ought to be redolent of calls for community involvement and for voluntary action, the two cornerstones of the third sector and civic society.