Retrieving The Big Society

Retrieving the Big Society presents a collection of essays that challenge the view of Britain’s Big Society as a political gimmick and recognise it as an alternative to the central state in social and economic governance. Offers an original and critical take on the idea of the Big Society Attempts to make sense of the Big Society by placing in the context of the history of localism, mutualism, and voluntarism Features contributions by experts on British politics and political theory

Notes on Contributors Introduction: Retrieving the Big Society (JASON EDWARDS) 1. The Big Society in Question (MAURICE GLASMAN and JESSE NORMAN) 2. Red or Orange: The Big Society in the New Conservatism (PAUL KELLY) 3. Cameron, Culture and the Creative Class: The Big Society and the Post-Bureaucratic Age (ALAN FINLAYSON) 4. Big Societies, Little Platoons and the Problems with Pluralism (RODNEY BARKER) 5. Servile State or Discredited State: Some Historical Antecedents of Current ‘Big Society’ Debates (JOSE HARRIS) 6. Tocqueville and the Big Society (JEREMY JENNINGS) 7. The Big Society and Conservative Politics: Back to the Future or Forward to the Past? (ALAN WARE) 8. Freedom, Free Institutions and the Big Society (JASON EDWARDS) 9. From Burke to Burkha: Conservatism, Multiculturalism and the Big Society (RICHARD KELLY and ROBERT CROWCROFT) 10. The Big Society: Post-Bureaucratic Social Policy in the Twenty-first Century? (BENJAMIN WILLIAMS) 11. Free Schools: Big Society or Small Interests? (ADAM LEEDER and DEBORAH MABBETT) 12. The Big Society and the ‘Mutualisation’ of Public Services: A Critical Commentary (JOHNSTON BIRCHALL) 13. Beginning the Big Society in the Early Years (LOUISE BAMFIELD) Index