Small Voluntary Organisations in the 'Age of Austerity'

Funding Challenges and Opportunities

Pauline McGovern

• Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781137521866
• eBook ISBN: 9781137521880
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Politics
• Index: Social Sciences

This book analyses the dynamics that underlie the awarding of public funding to small voluntary organisations in the UK. Using Bourdieu's later work on state power, the author argues that these competitions for grants, loans and contracts are neoliberal funding 'games'. Such games tempt grassroots organisations, she demonstrates, not just because they provide funding but because they confer a symbolic profit by defining the 'winner' and improving status. Taking part in these neoliberal funding games, however, can adversely affect the structure and development path of these organisations. Yet her conclusion is upbeat, focusing on the opportunities as well as the challenges that neoliberalism offers grassroots organisations in recompense for the moral weight that they hold within state discourse. Within supportive coalitions and with a robust evidence base that re-politicises neoliberal orthodoxy, in fact, they can choose to negotiate alternative futures within state policy or to withdraw from these funding games altogether. This thought-provoking work will appeal to students and researchers of sociology and social policy, along with scholars of Bourdieu, civil society and the voluntary sector.

Table of contents

• Small Voluntary Organisations in the ‘Age of Austerity’
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Roots of Neoliberalism and the Neoliberalising of the VCSE Sector
• 3 Re-defining Voluntary Action
• 4 Getting Needed Resources: Life in Small VCSE Organisations
• 5 Inequalities of Power: Cross-Sector Partnerships
• 6 Small Voluntary Organisations in the ‘Age of Austerity’: Challenges and Opportunities
• Bibliography
• Index