This article
In this issue
- Prospects for a Big Society? Special Issue of People Place and Policy Online: Guest Editorial
by Peter Wells - Big Society and community: lessons from the 1998-2011 New Deal for Communities Programme in England
by Paul Lawless - Private giving and philanthropy – their place in the Big Society
by Cathy Pharoah - 'Do-gooders, pink or fluffy, social workers' need not apply? An exploration of the experiences of the third sector organisations in the European Social Fund and Work Programme
by Richard Crisp, Ellie Roberts and Dave Simmonds - A Big Society in Yorkshire and the Humber?
by Peter Wells, Mark Crowe, Jan Gilbertson and Tony Gore - Review Article - The Big Society and participation failure
by Rob Macmillan
Big Society and community: lessons from the 1998-2011 New Deal for Communities Programme in England
Summary
The Coalition government which came to power in the UK in May 2010 has placed considerable stress on the Big Society. Assumptions underpinning this approach to policy and societal change are largely unevidenced. The evaluation of the ten year New Deal for Communities (NDC) Programme launched by the previous Labour government in 1998 has important implications for community-level decision making, a theme central to the Big Society. The NDC experience points to problems in this domain including intra-community strife, lack of engagement, and community representatives being wrong about the scale of, and appropriate policies through which to moderate, local problems.
