Enterprising care?

Irene Hardill is Professor of Public Policy in the Department of Social Sciences, Northumbria University. She has extensive research experience in theorising work (paid and unpaid), volunteering and the voluntary and community sectorSusan Baines is Reader in Social Policy at Manchester Metropolitan University. She researches and publishes on public services, and has a particular interest in their reliance on unpaid work in the household and community.

• Fixing Britain's 'broken' society: from the Third Way to Big Society; Theoretical underpinnings of voluntary work and voluntary organisations: work, care or enterprise?; Understanding the journeys of individual volunteers: demanding community concern, or demonstrating job readiness?; A professional paradox? 'Managing' volunteers in voluntary and community sector organisations; Voluntary and community sector organisations as enterprising care providers: keeping organisational values distinctive; Volunteering: an articulation of caring communities; Volunteering: caring for people like me; The big issue of the Big Society: mobilising communities alongside fiscal austerity

"This book, from authors who know their field very well, is a valuable resource, giving this reader, at last, a fresh sense of the complexity of unpaid voluntary action, a good sense of the reality on the ground and a range of useful ways to understand it." Marilyn Taylor, Journal of Social Policy "Feeding directly into the current ideological discussions on Big Society, 'Enterprising care?' is essential reading for all interested in the future of the voluntary sector." Colin C Williams, Professor of Public Policy, University of Sheffield