The Big Society: social engineering for the 21st Century?

I suspect that this is a question that theorists and social commentators will speculate on for years to come. From where I’m standing, it appears that those of us whose work is directly affected by the Big Society initiative are locked into defining what is and what isn’t ‘Big Society’ to the exclusion of everything else. This happens to include the fundamental changes to the unwritten contract between individual and state, irrespective of whether or not there is agreement about the contract’s merits. With our eye off the ball, the field is wide open for experiments in social engineering. I’m referring to the changes in the welfare benefit system, health and social care entitlements, legal aid and individual’s rights to justice, not forgetting free education. Has this contract become so one-sided (where individual benefits outweigh the gains of collective society) to the extent that we are not only economically but also socially bankrupt?
 

Although my latest blog is a question to provoke thought and discussion, this is not a hypothetical debate. People are experiencing poverty – I refer to the increasing numbers accessing foodbank centres across the West Midlands. Reality for many includes the fear of likely poverty as redundancy rates increase, general prices rise and the very frontline organisations referred to in the Big Society find themselves financially on the brink with an ever increasing demand for their services.
 

We may feel we are part of an ideological experiment, but the sector needs to keep hold of as much power as possible. This is no time for sitting on the sidelines – rather, it’s time for some counter engineering; if the voluntary and community sector is to live up to being innovative, resilient and responsive then it must make and take every opportunity to its own engineer of change with those of us working strategically on behalf of the sector striving for the best possible outcome.