Margaret Ledwith Northampton lecture 1 25 october 2011
1. From ‘no such thing as society’ to ‘the big society’!
Community development in changing political times
Margaret Ledwith
Emeritus Professor of Community Development and Social Justice
University of Cumbria, UK
The University of Northampton
25th October 2011
2. Community development
z The practice of social justice
z Contextualised in changing political times
z Poverty trends act as yardstick
z Becoming critical: reflection, dialogue, critique
3. 1968: ‘Revolt, rebellion, reaction’
z Social unrest: ‘race’ riots, student demonstrations,
civil rights marches, anti-Vietnam protests, ‘rivers of
blood’, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy
z 1969 Community Development Project
z Structural analysis replaced social pathology
z Birth of CD as practice of social justice!
4. 1970-80s: Eruption of radical
thought and action
z Freire, Gramsci, Alinsky: 1970-72
z Second wave feminism
z Radical adult education and community action
z Black feminism
z Adult Learning Project, Edinburgh, 1981
z Organisation of Women of African and Asian
Descent (OWAAD) Moss Side, 1975
z Abasindi Black Women’s Cooperative, Moss Side,
1980
z Social movements: theory in action
5. CD Praxis: a contested space
between top-down and bottom-up
z CD principles: social/environmental justice
z CD vision: just and sustainable world
z CD values: ideology of equality
z CD process: popular education for
participatory democracy
z CD theory: analyses of power
6. 1979:Thatcherism
z ‘No such thing as society’
z Age of individualism
z Free market: profit over people and planet
z Ideology of the welfare scrounger
z Tighten belts, trickle-down effect!
z Rich got rich, poor got poorer
z Child poverty escalated:1979 1:10, 1997 1:3
7. 1995: National Occupational
Standards for CD
Based on structural analysis (see CDX website)
z Equality and Anti-discrimination: challenges
structural inequalities and discriminatory practices
z Social Justice: addresses structural disadvantage,
exclusion, discrimination and inequality
z Collective Action: analyses situations and identifies
change through collective action
z Community Empowerment: empowerment of
individuals and communities
z Working and Learning Together: learning from
everyday experience
8. Reflection and dialogue
z How would you describe CD?
z Has your understanding changed during
this talk?
z Share your thoughts with the person next
to you.
9. 1997: The Blair Promise
z Age of partnership
z End child poverty by 2020!
z Every Child/Youth Matters (ECM/YM)
z Child Poverty Act, 2010
11. Is UK poverty a human rights issue?
z ‘The true measure of a
nation’s standing is how
well it attends to its
children – their health
and safety, their material
security, their education
and socialization, and
their sense of being
loved, valued, and
included in the families
and societies into which
they are born’
(UNICEF, 2007: 1).
12. Child poverty
z 1979-1997: child poverty increased from 1:10 to
1:3 in UK
z State of the world’s children: Childhood under
threat (UNICEF, 2005): one in every two children of
world in poverty
z UNICEF report (2007) on child well-being in rich
countries: UK bottom of 21 countries
13. Poverty discriminates
z Lone-parent households
z Low paid households
z Households without an adult in paid work
z Minority ethnic families
z ‘Dis’abled children or those with a
‘dis’abled parent
z Looked after children
14. Poverty kills!
z Low birthweight, infant death, child accidents
z Underachievement at school, truancy or
exclusion
z Low self esteem, low expectations
z Teenage pregnancy
z Youth suicide
z Malnutrition
z Unemployment and low wages
z Homelessness
z Hopelessness
z Long-term illness (morbidity)
z Premature death (mortality)
15. Reflection and dialogue
z How do you understand the concept of a
‘politics of disposability’?
z Do you agree with Killeen’s argument,
that UK poverty is a human rights issue?
z Discuss some of your thoughts with those
next to you.
16. 2010: The Big Society
z Social recovery of the broken society!
z Not about financial cuts?
z Make people responsible
z Give communities power
z Three key strands:
y Devolve state power
y Reduce public services
y Charitable giving
17. Critiquing the Big Society
z ‘Strong on empowerment, weak on equality’ (Coote, nef)
z No structural analysis of poverty
z Charity not redistribution of wealth
z Responsibility over rights
z IFS: by 2020, 800,000 more UK children in absolute poverty
z CPAG: Big Society unlawful re Child Poverty Act, 2010
