Retrieving The Big Society

Jason Edwards is Lecturer in Politics at Birkbeck, University of London. Dr. Edwards is also Director of the B.A. Programme in Politics and Government, Co-Director of Birkbeck Centre for the Study of British Politics and Public Life, and has written widely on the history of political thought, contemporary political theory, and British politics.

• Notes on ContributorsIntroduction: Retrieving the Big Society (JASON EDWARDS)1. The Big Society in Question (MAURICE GLASMAN and JESSE NORMAN)2. Red or Orange: The Big Society in the New Conservatism (PAUL KELLY)3. Cameron, Culture and the Creative Class: The Big Society and the Post-Bureaucratic Age (ALAN FINLAYSON)4. Big Societies, Little Platoons and the Problems with Pluralism (RODNEY BARKER)5. Servile State or Discredited State: Some Historical Antecedents of Current ‘Big Society’ Debates (JOSE HARRIS)6. Tocqueville and the Big Society (JEREMY JENNINGS)7. The Big Society and Conservative Politics: Back to the Future or Forward to the Past? (ALAN WARE)8. Freedom, Free Institutions and the Big Society (JASON EDWARDS)9. From Burke to Burkha: Conservatism, Multiculturalism and the Big Society (RICHARD KELLY and ROBERT CROWCROFT)10. The Big Society: Post-Bureaucratic Social Policy in the Twenty-first Century? (BENJAMIN WILLIAMS)11. Free Schools: Big Society or Small Interests? (ADAM LEEDER and DEBORAH MABBETT)12. The Big Society and the ‘Mutualisation’ of Public Services: A Critical Commentary (JOHNSTON BIRCHALL)13. Beginning the Big Society in the Early Years (LOUISE BAMFIELD)Index

“It is well worth a read.”  (The Journal of Social Policy, 1 October 2013)