Rhetorics of Welfare: Uncertainty, Choice and Voluntary Associations [Hardcover]

The book explores comparatively the role of non-profit organizations in conditions of social and economic change. The focus of the study is an investigation of the proposition that non-profit organizations provide sites and processes for enhancing active citizenship, invigorating the public sphere and extending political participation. The study explores the economic constraints on voluntary associations and argues that they can function as 'schools of democracy'. This book is the first national study of the third-sector in Australia, but its conclusions have a general relevance to deregulated welfare societies in Europe and North America.List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgements PART I: TOWARDS A THEORY OF PARTICIPATORY CITIZENSHIP Contested Rhetorics Civil Society and Citizenship On the Concept of Voluntary Associations PART II: ANALYSING VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATIONS Setting the Boundaries: Established Frameworks of Operation Unsettling the Voluntary Sector: The Emerging Market Framework Approaches to the Study of Voluntary Associations Welfare and the Voluntary Sector in Australia PART III: THE SEARCH FOR ACTIVE CITIZENSHIP Activating the Public Sphere and Social Capital Facing Uncertainty References IndexKEVIN M. BROWN is Lecturer in Sociology, Deakin University.

SUSAN KENNY is Reader in Sociology, School of Social Inquiry, Deakin University.

BRYAN S. TURNER is Professor of Sociology, University of Cambridge.

JOHN K. PRINCE School of Social Inquiry, Deakin University.