Monday 1 October 2012

The last post, maybe

This blog should have been put to rest some time ago, I guess.  But late last rites are, I hope, better than none.

Empowerment Works has been far from the only effort to energise people to create an alternative narrative to the Big Society that has decided to jack it in. The admirable Our Society website and its crew have done the same, and I can't do better than Julian Dobson in describing why things are as they are in what has turned into an empty space, so far as lively collaboration is concerned. 

Thursday 16 February 2012

Big society – some evidence

‘Crowding out’ is the notion that if the state withdraws, others will rush in to fill the gap.  It’s popular with big society thinkers.  They may be wrong when it comes to volunteers crowding in, according to the authors of Public Spending and Volunteering: "The Big Society", Crowding Out, and Volunteering Capital.