Policy & Politics conference

In several European countries current waves of welfare state restructuring go together with claims on citizens to become ‘active citizens’. Citizens are seduced or demanded to become involved in the provision of (formerly) public services, especially in their area of residence. In an effort to increase both active democracy and cut public spending, national and local governments encourage citizens to help execute and coordinate services such as youth work, public space upkeep, health care and personal support networks. A clear example of this trend is the Big Society policy program in the UK but also in the Netherlands an increasingly influential ‘burgerparticipatie’ (citizen participation) policy framework can be discerned. This policy turn implies that more decision making power but also more costs regarding neighbourhood services are shifted to citizens, changing the balance between market, state and citizens’ responsibilities. This has attracted critical attention as well as appraisal from academics. A general criticism is that in practice ‘community care’ often means that mostly women are burdened with unpaid care work. Also the representativeness, transparency, equal access and outcome of neighbourhood services provided by local civil sector organizations are disputed. A less debated issue in this respect is what the specific opportunities and problems of ‘active citizenship’ in deprived urban neighbourhoods are. In these, often relatively heterogeneous neighbourhoods, publicly or collectively organized welfare services can make a great difference in residents’ lives. As residents’ collectives are given more power in governance arenas to realize these services, this can contribute to wellbeing and empowerment. At the same time, the fact that different kinds of social, economic and cultural capital needed for ‘active citizenship’ can be relatively scarce in these neighbourhood, may present problems for the equal access to and outcomes of residents’ initiatives. This paper focuses on both the potential gains and the various dilemmas that citizens in deprived urban areas encounter when they become engaged in ‘do-it-yourself’ public service provision, in the urban neighbourhoods of Great-Britain and the Netherlands. It does this by providing a review of literature on the policy turn towards a participation driven welfare state, with a view to local volunteering in deprived neighbourhoods.