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Whilst there is a growing body of literature on formal voluntary organisations, relatively little research has been undertaken into the roles and functioning of small, informal, below the radar community groups and actions. ‘Community groups in context: Local activities and actions’ brings together a decade of research with informal community groups and small scale civil society organisations. It explores the wealth and diversity of their forms and activities, their fragility, strategies for survival and their position in relation to a range of public policy objectives. In particular the book examines under-researched aspects of small scale community action: from voluntary arts through to Gypsy, Traveller and Roma groups through to how people learn through to how activists learn, the emotional investment in community action and the voice of below the radar groups in local and national policy contexts.

Contemporary democracies need to develop a better governance of problems, as all too often policy is a sophisticated answer to the wrong problem. This book offers a new approach to public-policy making as problem processing, bringing together aspects of puzzling, powering, and participation, relating them to cultural theory, to issues about networks, to models of democracy, and to modes of citizen participation. It is part of a growing body of work in policy analysis literature.

This book brings together a collection of new and innovative work by researchers from Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK - settings where issues of voluntarism and participation have become increasingly important for the development and delivery of social welfare policy. Prefaced by one of the foremost geographers in this field, the book contains empirical and theoretical work from both new and well-established geographers. The chapters explore the interactions between voluntarism and a range of issues including governance, health, community action, faith, ethnicity, counselling, advocacy and professionalisation.

In a time of unprecedented turbulence, how can public sector organisations increase their ability to find innovative solutions to society's problems? This book shows how government agencies can use co-creation to overcome barriers and deliver more value, at lower cost, to citizens and business. The book is prescriptive. It shapes around the framework of an innovation ecosystem, encompassing the four Cs of consciousness, capacity, co-creation and courage. Through global case studies and practical examples, the book addresses the key triggers of public sector innovation. It shares new tools for citizen involvement through design thinking and ethnographic research, and pinpoints the leadership roles needed to drive innovation at all levels of government.

Does the coalition government represent a new politics in Britain, or is the new government just the same old Tories hiding behind an opportunist pact with the Liberal Democrats? Does Cameron differ from past Conservatives like Margaret Thatcher, and if so, how? This book looks at the coalition government in the context of conservative ideas and seeks to assess what, if anything, is new about it.

Everyone is talking about partnerships: environmental partnerships, social partnerships, public–private partnerships, partnerships between NGOs in Europe and the third world. How did partnerships come to emerge almost everywhere and at almost the same time? What is their inner logic? And at what point does that logic begin to break down? In a highly complex society, the conditions on which agreements are built are constantly changing, demanding, first and foremost, that parties agree to reach an agreement. Partnering is an answer to the growing differentiation and dynamism of the societies in which we live. While this answer holds great potential, it is, however, also very fragile. It is the aim of this book to improve our understanding of the shifting ground on which agreements must be reached in today’s hyper-complex society.

Personalisation – the idea that public services should be tailored to the individual, with budgets devolved to the service user or frontline staff – is increasingly seen as the future of the welfare state. This book focuses on how it evolved as a policy narrative and has mobilised such wide-ranging political support.

This book offers a wide-ranging analysis of recent shifts in the ideas and paradigms that underpin social policy. Since the 1980s the renaissance of civil society has introduced new ideas about the nature of power, citizenship, and human rights, which radically challenge the dominance of the state, the power of professionals, and the welfare system itself. The book traces the historical roots of these apparent changes and movements, demonstrates in detail their often paradoxical results, and speculates about the whole future of social policy.

This book is an English version of a successful text on public policy analysis originally written for policy practitioners in Switzerland and France. It presents a model for the analysis of public policy and includes examples of its application in everyday political-administrative situations. This English version introduces supplementary illustrations and examples from the United Kingdom. Structured and written accessibly for readers who may not have an academic background in the social sciences, this book applies key ideas from sociology, political science, administrative science, and law to develop an analytical framework that can be used to carry out empirical studies on different public policies.

This book focuses on the dynamics of change as new strategies — active citizenship, public participation, partnership working, and consumerism — encounter existing institutions. It explores different sites and practices of governing, from the remaking of Europe to the increasing focus on ‘community’ and ‘personhood’ in governing social life. The authors critically engage with existing theory across political science, social policy, sociology, and public administration and management to explore how ‘the social’ is constituted through governance practices. This includes the ways in which the spaces and territories of governing are remade and the peoples constituted; how the public domain is re-imagined and new forms of state–citizen relationships fostered; how the remaking of governance shapes our understanding of politics, and changes the ways in which citizens engage with political power and the selves they bring to that engagement.