ABSTRACT
Collective action in any community means that people who want to understand how the ‘world’ works attach meaning to the forces that shape it. The new thinking about governing— neoliberal consensus— means that the boundary between politics and economics is being broken down, strategically negotiated, redrawn, and redefined. Consequently power is being redefined. Globalisation means that the economy has broken out of the cage of the territorially or nationally organised powerbrokers as the new power moves in digital space. With economic restructuring, ideological debates are replaced by the discourse of globalisation. The preoccupation in Canadian politics with the deficit means that there is greater marginalisation of many social issues affecting families and children. In the increasingly technological programme environment, restructured by the new politics of reduced social spending, families recognise the need to collectively examine the knowledge and values claims made by those in authority.
