Has neo-liberal thinking colonised the voluntary sector?

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Photo 7In an important new paper, Ursula Murray, from Birkbeck University of London, addresses many of the key issues of our ‘Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services’. Entitled ‘To what extent is the voluntary sector colonised by neo-liberal thinking?’, the paper examines the involvement of the voluntary sector in the dismantling of the welfare state, the largely silent response of the mainstream sector ‘leadership’ towards these changes, and the growing acceptance of voluntary agencies to act as sub-contractors to global corporations. Lastly she revisits ideas about ‘public-ness’ as a basis for re-thinking the proper role of the voluntary sector in 21st Century Britain. You can download the paper as a PDF here

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  • Matt Scott

    Good to see the word getting out via the academy; yes neoliberalism runs rampant in the VCS only and because the VCS, notably at the national level wholly wants it that way, whereas at a grassroots level where the majority of groups subsist there is indifference to such right wing market dogmas

  • AdurVoluntaryAction

    Excellent paper, this. Everyone should read it, and understand why neo-liberalism needs to be weeded out of our culture, vocabulary and policies, dug out by its very roots, just as Orwell recommended should happen to the concept of class, and prejudices associated with it.