Why the voluntary sector?

This is a challenging time to write about the voluntary sector (VS) when discussions about public services and the role of civil society are constantly shifting narratives both in the UK and internationally. Cultures and arrangements surrounding the delivery of welfare services are rapidly changing, and while the public sphere has been pared back, voluntary sector organisations (VSOs), closely associated with ideas of civil society, have, until recently, been expanding. However, this too is changing.

Questions about the dismantling of public welfare services, the growing power of markets, the role of civil society and the location of the VS within these changes are central concerns for this book. It examines transitions in voluntary organisations against this context of sweeping changes to the political ideologies and arrangements underpinning social and welfare policy in the UK, in particular, exploring the extent to which voluntary organisations can remain autonomous and survive in the face of multiple challenges.

Over some 20 years, transformation in public services has generated a significant body of literature but, despite the visible impacts on other sectors, study of changes in the VS is still a limited, if recently growing, field of academic research. Yet during this period, the UK VS has grown rapidly, more than doubling its income, with the biggest growth in state-funded service delivery. These transitions, together with speculation about future roles for voluntary and community organisations, and their relationships with both the state and the private sector, have renewed public and academic interest in the VS, making the content of this book timely.

Over several decades, the legacy of New Public Management and associated arrangements for service delivery have pervaded political thought, alongside an economic approach privileging markets, outsourcing services to non-statutory providers and reducing public welfare spending. In parallel, the striking failures of the market together with disillusionment in state mechanisms to generate the promised solutions to social problems have produced new emphases on community and voluntary action. Civic engagement, active citizenship, community endeavour and mutualism have all been promoted as offering locally based solutions both to challenging social problems and financial deficits.