31 results
14 - Beyond Flights of Fancy?
- from Part III - Modes of Enhancement
- Edited by Sandra W. Russ, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, Jessica D. Hoffmann, Yale University, Connecticut, James C. Kaufman, University of Connecticut
-
- Book:
- The Cambridge Handbook of Lifespan Development of Creativity
- Published online:
- 19 November 2021
- Print publication:
- 25 November 2021, pp 305-326
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Both past and current research indicates that the creation of an imaginary companion is a common, normative, and healthy form of elaborated role-play that emerges in early childhood. Imaginary companions are often the invisible friends that children create for themselves, or the special stuffed animals or dolls that children imbue with personalities. Children often describe and experience their imaginary companions in ways that parallel real friendships with peers. Their emotional investment in these invented characters raises important questions about the broader roles they serve in their lives. Current research in this area has focused on the developmental significance of imaginary companions, and the extent to which they might have a real and meaningful impact on children’s development. This chapter reviews the extant literature on imaginary companions, with a particular focus on the relations between children’s imaginary companions, creativity, and coping with adversity.
Development and preliminary evaluation of EMPOWER for surrogate decision-makers of critically ill patients
- Wendy G. Lichtenthal, Martin Viola, Madeline Rogers, Kailey E. Roberts, Lindsay Lief, Christopher E. Cox, Chris R. Brewin, Jiehui Cici Xu, Paul K. Maciejewski, Cynthia X. Pan, Taylor Coats, Daniel J. Ouyang, Shayna Rabin, Susan C. Vaughan, William Breitbart, Marjorie E. Marenberg, Holly G. Prigerson
-
- Journal:
- Palliative & Supportive Care / Volume 20 / Issue 2 / April 2022
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 July 2021, pp. 167-177
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Objective
The objectives of this study were to develop and refine EMPOWER (Enhancing and Mobilizing the POtential for Wellness and Resilience), a brief manualized cognitive-behavioral, acceptance-based intervention for surrogate decision-makers of critically ill patients and to evaluate its preliminary feasibility, acceptability, and promise in improving surrogates’ mental health and patient outcomes.
MethodPart 1 involved obtaining qualitative stakeholder feedback from 5 bereaved surrogates and 10 critical care and mental health clinicians. Stakeholders were provided with the manual and prompted for feedback on its content, format, and language. Feedback was organized and incorporated into the manual, which was then re-circulated until consensus. In Part 2, surrogates of critically ill patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) reporting moderate anxiety or close attachment were enrolled in an open trial of EMPOWER. Surrogates completed six, 15–20 min modules, totaling 1.5–2 h. Surrogates were administered measures of peritraumatic distress, experiential avoidance, prolonged grief, distress tolerance, anxiety, and depression at pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at 1-month and 3-month follow-up assessments.
ResultsPart 1 resulted in changes to the EMPOWER manual, including reducing jargon, improving navigability, making EMPOWER applicable for a range of illness scenarios, rearranging the modules, and adding further instructions and psychoeducation. Part 2 findings suggested that EMPOWER is feasible, with 100% of participants completing all modules. The acceptability of EMPOWER appeared strong, with high ratings of effectiveness and helpfulness (M = 8/10). Results showed immediate post-intervention improvements in anxiety (d = −0.41), peritraumatic distress (d = −0.24), and experiential avoidance (d = −0.23). At the 3-month follow-up assessments, surrogates exhibited improvements in prolonged grief symptoms (d = −0.94), depression (d = −0.23), anxiety (d = −0.29), and experiential avoidance (d = −0.30).
Significance of resultsPreliminary data suggest that EMPOWER is feasible, acceptable, and associated with notable improvements in psychological symptoms among surrogates. Future research should examine EMPOWER with a larger sample in a randomized controlled trial.
References
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 211-240
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
one - Introduction
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 1-6
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Active citizenship and the third sector have come to the fore in policy debates internationally, as well as in a variety of national contexts. As John Gaventa was already arguing at the turn of the new millennium, through ‘community organizations, social movements, issue campaigns, and policy advocacy, citizens have found ways to have their voices heard and to influence the decisions and practices of larger institutions that affect their lives’ (Gaventa, 2001, p 275). Over several decades there has been growing interest in the capacities of citizens to take responsibility for their own destinies as civil society actors, if for a variety of reasons, as we explore subsequently. And one of the key sites that has been identified as having the capacity for nurturing as well as for expressing active citizenship has been the third sector. Yet ‘active citizenship’ and the ‘third sector’ have been contested as concepts and both have been affected by processes of change, including neoliberal globalisation.
There are those who argue that the expansion of active citizenship provides significant opportunities to promote democracy and human rights both locally, nationally and globally (Held, 1995; Archibugi, 2008), while globalisation offers possibilities ‘for a new sense of solidarity and new opportunities for engagement’ (Gaventa and Tandon, 2010, p 5). In an increasingly interconnected world, changing patterns of power and governance have been emerging and, with these, new and reconstructed spaces for public action together with changing, multilayered and multidimensional identities of citizenship (Gaventa and Tandon, 2010). Citizens and their organisations have been invited to engage with policy makers at local, national and, increasingly, at international level – in the latter case through opportunities such as the UN Human Rights Committees and the Global Platform for Disaster Reduction. They have also been creating their own discursive spaces
However, critics argue that, far from extending democratisation and the promotion of human rights, deepening neoliberal globalisation policies have been undermining the role of the state along with the independent role of the third sector. Thus Gaventa and Tandon question the extent to which globalisation does actually offer a ‘real opportunity for expanded solidarity’, suggesting that it ‘weakens the possibilities for human agency’ and concluding that ‘In sum there are winners and losers in this process’ (Gaventa and Tandon, 2010, p 5).
About the authors
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp iv-iv
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
ten - Active citizenship and the emergence of networks
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 163-184
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
As we have argued throughout this book, active citizenship involves agency. Turner (1992), among others, emphasises the importance of people shaping rights and obligations through their participation in society, as active rather than passive citizens. Humans are viewed as autonomous self-determining beings, as agents who shape and change society (Touraine, 2000). This approach places agency at the centre of societal development. Crucially, the focus on agency has opened up citizenship research to questions about different ways in which subjects enact themselves as citizens. To explore some of these questions, it is necessary to adopt a micro analysis, one that examines the formation of active citizenship from below. Such an analysis may complement the more usual sociopolitical analysis, which examines the macro factors that also shape and at times limit the formation of particular kinds of citizenship.
We are here dealing with the question of how change happens. How do new organisational forms emerge? How do new products, new systems of production and new ideas of any sort materialise? Organisational theory tends to assume that new organisational forms are created by good managers, perhaps entrepreneurs, within an organisational context and drawing on organisational resources. In other words, citizens assume power from above. Someone with power and resources makes something happen. However, by focusing on collective agency, this chapter turns this assumption on its head, and focuses instead on the ways that creative new forms may emerge from below.
As Chapter Four discussed, there is now a substantial body of literature that identifies the importance of the third sector in the development and support of active citizenship (for example, Onyx et al, 2011) and the creation of social capital (Putnam, 2000; Onyx and Bullen, 2000). But there is another story to be told about the formation of third sector organisations. What kinds of actions lie behind the formation of these organisations or indeed of larger social movements? And what of the ordinary, everyday lived reality of active citizenship? What are the actual processes and structures that underpin social capital, community capacity and active citizenship?
This chapter argues that, while third sector organisations are crucial in the maintenance of civil society, in order to understand active citizenship and the formation of third sector organisations, it is necessary to look beneath the surface manifestations of these organisations and understand their emergent nature.
two - Active citizenship
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 9-20
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
To understand the contemporary idea of active citizenship we need to note the intellectual shift that was taking place in the social sciences during the 1980s, which focused attention on the importance of human agency in social change. At one level this shift was reflected in the growing interest in new social movements (Melucci, 1989; Touraine, 1988). At another level it found expression in new approaches to welfare. Giddens, for example, writing in Britain, argued for a ‘positive welfare’ approach (Giddens, 1994, p 152), which would recognise the role of self development and the importance of reflexive engagement with life chances and social security systems. This approach can be understood as setting the scene for self determination. However, it also provides a policy platform for ‘self responsibilisation’, requiring individuals to rely on their own resources and take individual responsibility for their own livelihoods. Indeed, Fuller et al (2008, p 157) argue that the emphasis on the self responsible, active citizen emerged in explicit contrast to the earlier needs-/rights-based notion of citizenship. Arguments for self responsibilisation and self help are easily crafted to accord with the principles of neoliberalism – a recurring theme throughout this book.
The refocusing of thinking about the role of human agency in social change has not been limited to Western societies. In other parts of the world, the failure of anti-poverty strategies organised around top-down structural economic adjustment policies led to a rethink of aid policies by international agencies (Chambers, 1983; Bhatnagar and Williams, 1992; Eade and Williams, 1995; World Bank, 2013). By the late 1990s many international development programmes were being reworked, emphasising new programmes for capacity building to ‘empower’ local people to develop and act upon their own policies to improve their lives.
Citizenship in theory
While we can trace the intellectual interest in human agency to the 1980s, the specific theoretical construction of human agents as active citizens has mainly come about through the field of citizenship studies. Much contemporary discussion and debate in citizenship studies has been informed by the writings of T. H. Marshall (1992) in the immediate post World War II years. For Marshall, citizenship denoted membership of a political community, with members entitled to equal rights and participation.
Preface
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp vi-viii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Why this book?
The idea for this book emerged as the four of us sat in the sunshine, sharing reflections, during breaks between sessions at the International Society for Third Sector Research's conference in Siena, Italy, in 2012. The third sector was facing many challenges in the context of neoliberal globalisation, challenges with major significance in relation to our shared interests in the promotion of democratic participation, equalities and social justice. Was globalisation opening up new spaces for active citizenship, locally, nationally and/or internationally? Or was the third sector becoming increasingly incorporated into neoliberal agendas? How far could the third sector's own claims for its contributions be justified by the evidence? What about the ‘dark side’ to the third sector and to wider social movements, the side that excludes outsiders and practises discriminatory approaches to active citizenship? And in what ways might the third sector be reinventing itself, more generally, in response to changing circumstances?
Between us, we began to share reflections from our own empirical research, comparing and contrasting experiences from a wide variety of contexts, across continents. We started to identify the theoretical implications, taking account of differing definitions and varying perspectives. And we began to reflect on the possible ramifications for developing policies and practices to promote active citizenship. While we set out to unpack contested concepts and critically examine the evidence, this did not in any way imply that we had no starting positions ourselves. Far from being totally neutral, we share common commitments to the values of equality, social solidarity, human rights and social justice, together with respect for diversity and differences within and between communities. These shared commitments have underpinned our approach to the third sector and active citizenship.
This has not meant, though, that we have been in total agreement. Given our own particular backgrounds, from different continents, and given our varying theoretical approaches and experiences, as researchers and activists, it would have been somewhat surprising if we had found ourselves in unanimous agreement about each aspect of every chapter. So how have we managed the process of writing this book together?
Sue Kenny took the lead in developing the proposal in outline. Once this had been agreed we each took responsibility for drafting specific chapters. Sue Kenny produced the first drafts of Chapters Two, Three, Four and Seven. Jenny Onyx produced the first drafts of Chapters Six, Ten and Eleven.
seven - Active citizenship as civil commitment: cultural considerations
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 99-116
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
This chapter further investigates manifestations of active citizenship as civil commitment in the third sector. It draws on empirical studies in non-OECD countries with different historical and cultural backgrounds. However, before exploring these empirical studies, it is important to consider a concern that arises periodically in discussions of the global ramifications of the romance with civil society and its affiliated concepts. This concern, which Chapter Three touched on, revolves around the question of the applicability of civil society concepts to non-Western settings. The ‘Westernisation thesis’, as it is often called in these discussions, holds that economic, political and social development are dominated, both intellectually and in practice, by Western assumptions (see Latouche, 1993; Escobar, 1995; Schuurman, 2000; Ziai, 2004; Rist, 2008). Westernisation can be seen as positive or negative for a country, depending on the perspective and values of the perceiver. For example, where democratic processes are held in high regard and ‘the West’ is equated with democratic values, then Westernisation is perceived to be a good thing. However, over the past decade, Western ideas of democracy have received a bad press from some quarters, based on revelations of corruption in Western democracies as well as the perceived hypocritical legitimation of interventions in other countries which have been championed as ‘bringing democracy’ to the people (by force and/or to facilitate neoliberal forms of economic development; Hanieh, 2013). Commentators have also pointed to the apparently failed experiments of democracy in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.
Criticisms of attempts to ‘democratise the world’, of course, go back decades. By the 1990s there was a chorus of voices arguing that Western concepts of democracy and civil society were part of a crusade to ‘Westernise’ the whole world (Latouche, 1993; Escobar, 1995). From this perspective, civil society concepts are seen as part of the hegemonic armoury of the West. Other commentaries, such as on the global reach of civil society today, simply assume the universality of civil society concepts, without any explicit judgement of their value, although often implicitly accepting the positive contribution of civil society to all societies.
The ascendancy of commitment to human rights over the past 20 years has been of particular relevance to the study of citizenship internationally.
five - The third sector in context
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 53-76
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Chapter Three highlighted the ambiguities inherent in defining the third sector. This chapter explores further the changing boundaries between the state, the market and the third sector, discussing different ways of understanding the relationship between the sectors over time and space and the implications for third sector organisations as channels for civil commitment and activism. It then draws on institutional and governmentality theory to consider the implications of blurring and hybridisation for the sector's role in promoting active citizenship.
Models of the state–third sector relationship
Several attempts have been made to formulate typologies of the relationship between the state and the third sector (Kramer, 1981; Gidron et al, 1992; Salamon and Anheier, 1998; Wagner, 2000). Salamon and Anheier, for example, drew on Esping Andersen's (1990) welfare regime theory to suggest four models of third sector regime – liberal, corporatist, statist and social democrat. Such attempts are open to challenge in three respects. First, they tend to focus on the OECD countries and take for granted ways of understanding the world in relation to the state and market that may not always apply elsewhere. Second, they take insufficient account of change over time and variations within sectors and countries and between welfare fields. Third, they tend to focus on service delivery – or the ‘welfare mix’ and hence on civil commitment rather than activism. Nonetheless, they provide a useful starting point for our discussion. With such reservations in mind, therefore, we draw on these and other sources to identify a number of ‘ideal types’, characterised by different ideological perspectives, and explore their implications for the role of the third sector in promoting different types of active citizenship.
The ideal types we have identified are presented in Table 1, along with a description of the ideologies that underpin them, the relationship between the sector, the role of the state and the role of the third sector – first in promoting citizenship as civil commitment and second in promoting citizenship as activism.
Embedded in a liberal laissez faire ideology, the dual model is one in which state and third sector roles develop largely independently of each other and are seen as separate spheres.
four - Third sector organisations nurturing active citizenship: the claims
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 41-52
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Previous chapters have argued that a robust civil society requires active citizens. In turn, active citizenship requires nurturing settings, with facilitating processes, practices, structures and norms. Over the past three decades there has been a growing body of literature championing the role of third sector organisations in cultivating citizenship. But what is it about third sector organisations that might make them special sites for the development of active citizenship? A detailed answer to this question involves a number of elements: identification and appraisal of the theoretical claims; investigation of the types of active citizenship under consideration; analysis of the different forms of third sector organisation; consideration of the context in which they are operating; and examination of the evidence available. A comprehensive study of this kind is beyond the scope of this book. However, we can begin to unpack these elements. This chapter begins therefore by discussing theoretical arguments about four major features of third sector organisations that can nurture active citizenship – or can be claimed as doing so. Later chapters then consider examples of different types of active citizenship in various third sector settings.
Features of third sector organisations
The four main features of third sector organisations that we have identified as nurturing active citizenship are: agency; association; democratic processes; and the development of cosmopolitanism. These features are interrelated and not necessarily of equal strength in any one organisation. Nor are they evident in every third sector organisation. But they provide cultural frames that can induce people to think and act in certain ways.The first part of this chapter discusses each of the features or claims we have identified in turn. The second half of the chapter highlights some of the complexities in understanding the roles of the third sector.
Agency
Third sector organisations are a vehicle for citizen agency – which, for this book, is perhaps their most important feature. They are the means through which citizens can actively engage with each other and with society at large to discuss issues of mutual concern and then take further action around this engagement. They foster initiative and reflexive action. As centres of uncoerced activity they act as the communities of choice mentioned in Chapter Three, in which people can participate, or from which they can exit of their own volition.
Challenging the Third Sector
- Global Prospects for Active Citizenship
- Sue Kenny, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, Marjorie Mayo
-
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015
-
Written by experts this important book explores the vital relationships between active citizenship, civil society and the third sector in different socio-political contexts. Drawing on a range of theory and empirical studies the book will be a useful resource for researchers and practitioners.
six - Active citizenship as civil commitment
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 79-98
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Chapter Two identified one particular type of active citizenship as civil commitment. This type of active citizenship is not about political activism but rather about preserving important assets and services in the community, generating social capital and encouraging social cohesion. Citizens actively work together to preserve and protect, to enhance and improve the community in which they live. They provide services to those who would otherwise do without; they keep the wheels turning. They often avoid confrontation and ‘things political’. Following the outline of the claims concerning the third sector that were identified in Chapter Four, this chapter examines further some of the claims that have been made about the role of active citizenship as civil commitment, exploring research relating to the civil commitment of volunteers: where they come from; what motivates them; how they benefit; and what they achieve. Volunteers have been seen as being at the core of social capital generation with volunteerism being oriented to fulfilling social obligations. However, volunteers are not simply passive and obedient subjects but display considerable agency, not only in maintaining existing services and organisations but on occasion in challenging existing practices.
Associationalism
This kind of citizenship as active civil commitment has been explicated through communitarian theory and the theory of associationalism, both of which have been introduced in preceding chapters. Most simply, communitarian theory is based on a commitment to community. Communitarians are concerned to redress the anomie engendered by neoliberalism and the erosion of identity and the lack of social solidarity in modern liberal societies. Communitarian theory rests on the argument that a cohesive and productive society requires cooperative enquiry and cooperative endeavour. To have cooperation it is necessary for members of society to accept their mutual responsibilities (Etzioni, 1996; Tam, 1998). For example, it is only when people embrace a cooperative approach to life that inclusive communities can be built. From this perspective the major task of civil society is to find ways of ensuring cooperative approaches and acceptance of mutual responsibilities. Third sector organisations offer sites for launching and reinforcing such cooperation.
From a communitarian perspective, a strong associational life is the bedrock of civil society. As Edwards (2004, p 18) argues, the most common normative understanding of civil society is based on the view that it provides the sphere, par excellence, where robust associational life is generated.
Frontmatter
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp i-ii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Index
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 241-248
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
eleven - Shifting paradigms
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 185-202
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
The third sector and the nature of active citizenship are both changing rapidly. Some argue that we are witnessing what appears to be a dramatic bifurcation of the third sector, although on closer examination, it is clear that the shifts are more complex than this would suggest. Indeed the sector may appear ever more confused as it moves simultaneously in opposite directions. With the increasing dominance of neoliberal, market-driven ideology, particularly in OECD countries, many third sector organisations, by choice or necessity, are turning to market-driven models of organisational structure and function and operating more like entrepreneurial businesses (see Chapter Five). However, as discussed in the previous chapter, much is also happening under the surface, often entirely out of the mainstream media gaze until a major crisis or event occurs to make the new types of third sector activity visible. There are the actions of social media, Facebook and Twitter, for example, but also, at least in their early stages, more targeted forms of civil activism such as GetUp, Avaaz and Wikileaks, referred to in earlier chapters. Such unruly, apparently unmanaged actions nonetheless have an (emergent) organisational base and indeed often operate through transnational networks. This chapter explores the implications of these dramatically different emergent new forms of organising. It examines how each to some extent serves to define the space of the other.
The growing dominance of neoliberal approaches
As Chapter Five reported, the move away from the welfare state in some countries was partly driven by the claim that intervention by the state simply perpetuates a welfare dependency, a kind of passive, learned helplessness by the community, which then has to wait for the government to fix everything. According to this view, people then lose their capacity to take action on their own account. The policies of neoliberalism turned attention from the state to the market. They championed privatisation and deregulation. Simply stated, neoliberal approaches rest on the free play of market forces. Through public policy, the state adopts the mechanisms and principles of the market. The basic assumptions are that individual citizens – now constructed as consumers – should exercise their free choice in accessing goods and services according to their capacity to pay; the providers of such goods and services will continue to provide them as long as demand is strong enough and the quality of their services are sufficiently attractive.
eight - Active citizenship as activism: political engagement through the third sector
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 117-138
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Chapter Four introduced the claims made for the contribution that third sector organisations can make to democratic life, acting as ‘schools for democracy’, giving citizens voice, and providing space for deliberation and debate. The work of Robert Putnam, for example, has linked engagement in voluntary associations with the development of social capital and hence to the development of the civil norms and trust that, he argues, form the basis of effective local governance (Putnam et al, 1993; Putnam, 2000). Others have argued that associationalism, as the primary means of both democratic governance and organising social life, should be at the root of democracy (Hirst, 1994, p 26). As indicated in previous chapters, this model resonates with a communitarian ideal of self-governing communities, which would enable all their members to participate in collective processes affecting their lives (see also Taylor, 2011).
Chapter Five then discussed the various ways in which both globalisation and the advance of a neoliberal ideology have affected the relationship between the state, market and the third sector in different parts of the world, opening up new opportunities but also posing new challenges. It described the risks to third sector independence posed by the move to market models of welfare and the way in which nongovernmental agencies (NGOs) have been socialised into the establishment and thus ‘have made a contribution, albeit minor in comparison to other actors, to the rolling back of the state’ (Hulme and Edwards, 1997, p 9). It also reported that, over recent decades, new spaces have been opening up for citizen voice at local, national and international levels (Cornwall and Coelho, 2007) and considered the risks of cooption but also the potential for resistance. This has clear implications for the promotion of active citizenship via political engagement. This chapter therefore explores further the third sector's role in promoting democratic engagement through civic engagement and citizen activism, the latter in the sense of challenging or changing dominant power relations and structures. In doing so, it draws on case studies for illustration.
The changing role of the third sector in democracy
The roots of modern democracy are usually traced back to ancient Athens, where citizens had a direct vote in decision making in the city state (Foley and Hodgkinson, 2003).
twelve - W(h)ither the third sector?
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 203-210
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Over the past 50 years or so, civil society – and particularly the third sector within it – has attracted growing attention as a key site for nurturing the active citizenship that is seen by many as the bedrock of a democratic society.
A number of factors have contributed to this current interest. Revolutions against authoritarian regimes, particularly in the 1980s and 1990s, and more recently, were hailed at the time as demonstrating that citizens were taking power to themselves. Meanwhile, falling turnouts at elections and evidence of growing apathy or mistrust of formal politics have led governments in the more established democracies to look for ways of reinforcing their legitimacy and revitalising their own democratic systems. The spread of neoliberalism to many parts of the globe found in civil society and the third sector an opportunity to roll back the frontiers of the state. In contrast, those alarmed at the rise of neoliberalism and the market turned to civil society more generally as a means of countering the market's worst excesses. Against this background, concepts of communitarianism and social capital also found a ready audience. After a decade or so of structural adjustment, even global financial institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, stressed the need ‘to engage the energies and enthusiasm of those at the grass-roots’ (Salamon, 1995, p 257).
In this book, we set out to unpack a number of the central assumptions that lay behind this current interest in civil society and the third sector. We started by asking how the concepts of active citizenship, civil society and the third sector have been constructed, dissected and reconstructed, both internationally and more locally. We then discussed the differing claims that can be made about the way in which third sector organisations nurture active citizenship: as a vehicle for agency, association, democracy and cosmopolitanism. The first part of the book ended by exploring the varying roles that the third sector plays in relation to market and state, taking account of differing ideologies, and sociopolitical contexts, as well as the scope for human agency within wider structural constraints. We have paid particular attention throughout to the ways in which neoliberal globalisation has framed the relationship between the third sector and active citizenship in different contexts.
Contents
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp iii-iii
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
Part 1 - Exploring concepts and contexts
- Sue Kenny, Deakin University, Australia, Marilyn Taylor, Jenny Onyx, University of Technology Sydney, Marjorie Mayo, Goldsmiths University of London
-
- Book:
- Challenging the Third Sector
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 08 March 2022
- Print publication:
- 17 June 2015, pp 7-8
-
- Chapter
- Export citation