ABSTRACT
As with other functions, it therefore has to be concluded that the jury is still out on the comparative impact of the voluntary sector in community-building. There is a rich collection of anecdotes and arguments available, with practitioners and policy analysts pointing to credible examples and suggesting plausible lines of reasoning in support of the voluntary sector’s contributions. But it is hard to claim on the basis of the burgeoning empirical social science
Billis and Glennerster’s (1998) analysis seeks to go beyond the foundational accounts of the voluntary sector’s role introduced in Chapter 1 (Box 1.1). The core ideas of voluntary agencies as involving multiple stakeholding and internal relational ambiguity are perhaps not as original as the authors seem to imply. However, the link made with particular categories of socially excluded people is undoubtedly innovative – and timely in the light of this Government’s policy focus on disadvantage understood in this way (see Chapters 3 and 4).
