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Small Voluntary Organisations in the 'Age of Austerity'

Funding Challenges and Opportunities

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Pauline McGovern

    1. Faculty of Business, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

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  • Analyses the funding of small voluntary organisations in the UK within the context of neoliberalism
  • Uses Bourdieu’s theories of state power to explain the funding ‘games’ in which they compete
  • Demonstrates that neoliberalism provides opportunities as well as challenges for grassroots organisations

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  2. Introduction

    • Pauline McGovern
    Pages 1-7

  3. The Roots of Neoliberalism and the Neoliberalising of the VCSE Sector

    • Pauline McGovern
    Pages 9-28

  4. Re-defining Voluntary Action

    • Pauline McGovern
    Pages 29-44

  5. Getting Needed Resources: Life in Small VCSE Organisations

    • Pauline McGovern
    Pages 45-67

  6. Inequalities of Power: Cross-Sector Partnerships

    • Pauline McGovern
    Pages 69-92

  7. Small Voluntary Organisations in the ‘Age of Austerity’: Challenges and Opportunities

    • Pauline McGovern
    Pages 93-106

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 107-119
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Faculty of Business, University of Greenwich, London, United Kingdom

    Pauline McGovern

About the author

Pauline McGovern is a Research Fellow based in the Faculty of Business at the University of Greenwich, UK. Her major theoretical interest is in the later work of Pierre Bourdieu. Her research strands are in the areas of civil society and wellbeing in later life.

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