eleven - Shifting paradigms

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.