Complying, Transforming or Resisting in the New Austerity? Realigning Social Welfare and Independent Action among English Voluntary Organisations

Milbourne, Linda; Cushman, Mike

doi:10.1017/s0047279414000853

Cited by 60 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…This is a danger in a system where government controls funding for services, measures service delivery outcomes and emphasises the importance of service delivery (Wolch 1990, DiMaggio and Powell 1983, Whelan 1999, Milbourne and Cushman 2015, Schmid et al 2008, Rochester 2013. Interviewee 4 witnessed the transformation of the community orientation of her housing organisation, following merger with a larger commercially oriented housing association.…”

Section: Discussion Analysis and Conclusion: The Changing Space In mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interviewees felt small organisations were focused on the struggle to survive, while larger organisations, due to concerns over financial liabilities tended towards risk aversion, with institutional restrictions on the autonomy to express critical voice (Interviewee 1, 2, 5). Milbourne and Cushman (2015) have argued that institutional ideologies condition organisational conduct and mindsets. Silverman and Patterson (2011) suggest that the creation of a "nonprofit industrial complex" emphasises service provision over political advocacy which stifles dissent.…”

Section: Discussion Analysis and Conclusion: The Changing Space In mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Isomorphic pressures, it is argued, cause mission drift, loss of 'prophetic voice' and professionalization which leads to conformity and compliance. This 'limits alternative practices and aspirations and slowly transforms self-definition', which, in the longer term, decouples voluntary organisations from their civil society origins (Wolch 1990, Chaves et al 2004, DiMaggio and Powell 1983, Milbourne and Cushman 2015p. 467, Taylor 2011.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: the Restructuring Of Welfare And Volumentioning

confidence: 99%

“…127, Chaney and Wincott 2014, Cunningham 2012. Restrictions to welfare, though, also open the potential for voluntary organisations to mobilise around dissent, reshape community action and reassert their agendas (Milbourne and Cushman 2015). In response to austerity there has been an increased focus on voluntary action, community organising and community unionism.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework: the Restructuring Of Welfare And Volumentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The constraints on voluntary sector voice in a period of continued austerity

Hemmings

2017

Voluntary Sector Review

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This article explores how austerity has affected the ability of voluntary sector organisations in England to represent, advocate and lobby to ensure that the voice of disadvantaged people is heard by government. The core contribution of the article is its use of a qualitative longitudinal research methodology to analyse how people experience, interpret and respond to change. The article supports neo-institutional and resource dependency theories, which argue that institutional incorporation, financial dependency and managerial isomorphism have a negative impact on the ability to express critical voice. Austerity accelerates this tendency, creating fear and layering additional pressures on previous restructuring and reform tensions. This contrasts with quantitative empirical findings that involvement with government and financial dependency strengthen rather than reduce political advocacy. The article argues for a nuanced view of advocacy that recognises the constraints on the ability of the sector to advocate for and empower disadvantaged people and communities.

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Section: Discussion Analysis and Conclusion: The Changing Space In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussion Analysis and Conclusion: The Changing Space In mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framework: the Restructuring Of Welfare And Volumentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Framework: the Restructuring Of Welfare And Volumentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The constraints on voluntary sector voice in a period of continued austerity

Hemmings

2017

Voluntary Sector Review

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“…Brenner et al, 2010), tend to downplay the disparate nature of governing arrangements, subordinating it to capital relations (Fuller and Geddes, 2008;Nolan and Featherstone, 2015). Yet other accounts highlight the critical significance of such alternative forms of governing and resistance to pro-market values (Ong, 2006;Williams et al, 2014;Featherstone, 2015;Milbourne and Cushman, 2015;Fuller and West, 2016). For Featherstone (2015), the spatially 'situated' nature of practices and actors involved in neoliberal tendencies means that resistance is integral to this contemporary landscape.…”

Section: Austerity and 'Austerity Urbanism'mentioning

confidence: 99%

City government in an age of austerity: Discursive institutions and critique

Fuller

2016

Environ Plan A

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Austerity is an increasingly important feature of urban society and in western countries, both as a site interwoven with the crisis tendencies of capitalism and as spaces mitigating austerity programmes instigated by nation states. Cities have therefore become key spaces in the mediation of 'austerity urbanism', but where such processes involve deliberation, making the production of consensus highly problematic. Such tendencies require far greater intellectual sensitivity towards the practices of agents as they seek to enact social control and coordination, as well as subordinate resistance and critique. 'Pragmatist Sociology' is utilised in this paper to examine the construction and deployment of discursive institutions seeking to control the behaviour of actors, including reducing critique, with the intention of legitimising austerity programmes. Such discursive institutions establish semantic links between the discursive aims of those seeking to control, and the pragmatics of the everyday lives of those subject to such institutions. The paper seeks to examine, through a case study of an English city, how key decision-makers construct discursive institutions in the implementation of austerity and subordination of resistance and, second, the actual practices of resisting austerity. In conclusion, the paper finds that austerity governance is characterised by discursive austerity institutions based on market and bureaucratic values, where large scale critique has been marginalised, resulting in minor forms of critique in the everyday, and compounded by constant efforts at the reconfirmation of discursive institutions.

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The Co-optation of Pro-Roma NGOs: Economic Interest, Buffering Effects and Roma Leaders

Maestri

2019

Temporary Camps, Enduring Segregation

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Complying, Transforming or Resisting in the New Austerity? Realigning Social Welfare and Independent Action among English Voluntary Organisations

Cited by 60 publications

References 42 publications

The constraints on voluntary sector voice in a period of continued austerity

The constraints on voluntary sector voice in a period of continued austerity

City government in an age of austerity: Discursive institutions and critique

The Co-optation of Pro-Roma NGOs: Economic Interest, Buffering Effects and Roma Leaders

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