Feature Local Economy 2016, Vol. 31(4) 489–501 The role of civil society ! The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: in reducing poverty and sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0269094216646993 inequality: A case study lec.sagepub.com of the campaign in the UK

Paul Bunyan Edge Hill University, UK

Abstract The introduction of the national minimum wage at the end of the 1990s in the UK represented an important intervention by the then New Labour government but it has remained too low to effectively address increasing levels of in-work poverty and inequality. This article traces the development of the living wage campaign, initiated and led by Citizens UK and its main affiliate London Citizens from 2001 onwards and what it has to say about the role and potential of civil society in addressing issues of poverty and inequality.

Keywords civil society, community organising, inequality, living wage, London citizens, poverty

Introduction This article traces the development of the living wage campaign, initiated and led by The announcement of a ‘national living Citizens UK and its main affiliate London wage’ by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Citizens from 2001 onwards. George Osborne in the summer 2015 budget In the first part of the article two concep- moved the idea of the living wage to the tual frameworks are utilised to explore centre of national politics and media atten- broader questions about the role and poten- tion in the UK. The policy generated much tial of civil society in addressing issues of public debate seen by some as a radical step poverty and inequality and promoting to address low pay and in-work poverty, by social justice – first, Edwards three-fold others as a welcome hike in the minimum wage but significantly short of a living wage Corresponding author: and by others still, as an audacious attempt Paul Bunyan, Department of Social Sciences, Edge Hill to co-opt the living wage ‘brand’ as cover University, Ormskirk, L39 4QP Lancashire, UK. for welfare cuts targeted at the poor. Email: [email protected]

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 490 Local Economy 31(4) model of civil society, understood as In addressing poverty, civil society under- associational life, the good society and the stood as associational life encompasses the public sphere; second, the distinction many ways in which individuals, groups and between redistribution and recognition local institutions respond directly to need. which has informed recent philosophical Among other things, they include, individual debates, most notably between Nancy acts of kindness, generosity and charitable Fraser and Axel Honneth, about the giving, the work of volunteers in charities nature of social justice. In the second part and third sector organisations providing sup- of the article key features of the living wage portandadviceonwelfare,adviceanddebt, campaign in the UK and the community and the work of faith groups such as the organising approach which has been central Salvation Army, the Catholic Society of to its success are explored, including its ori- St Vincent de Paul (SVP) and Muslim Aid gins, tactics employed, milestones achieved who provide assistance to the poor and dis- and, in light of the ‘national living wage’, advantaged. Whilst many of these works and potential future direction. In the final part, acts of charity might represent short term the living wage campaign and the organis- alleviations rather than longer term solutions ing approach upon which it is based are to reducing poverty, they nevertheless repre- evaluated against the conceptual framework sent an important part of the picture of how established and broader questions about the people individually and collectively in their possibilities for radical forms of democratic localities and institutions respond directly politics located in civil society are explored. to poverty and seek to make a difference to The article concludes that the living wage the world around them. campaign and the approach of community Civil society understood as the good organising more generally represent one of society encompasses the realm of ideas the most important civil society-led initia- and competing narratives about the nature tives to reduce poverty and inequality in of a good society and how it might be the UK in recent decades. achieved. Issues of poverty and inequality lie at the heart of debate about what a Conceptualising civil society good society looks like and civil society approaches to addressing organisations contribute to and inform poverty such debate in a number of ways. For exam- ple charitable trusts and Foundations, such Edwards’ three-fold model of civil society as the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Webb Memorial Trust provide an important According to Michael Edwards (2010), a source of ideas, analysis and funding aimed leading writer and authority on the subject, at establishing a fairer and more just society. civil society is best understood as encom- Faith groups too, often provide strong coun- passing three interrelated dimensions – tercultural narratives which challenge stereo- civil society as the world of associational types of people in poverty and promote life, civil society as the good society and social justice. Church Action on Poverty, civil society as the public sphere. for example, produced a report, entitled Civil society as associational life is ‘The Blame Game Must Stop’ (McCarron the orthodox and most common under- and Purcell, 2013) challenging the stigmatisa- standing of civil society. Here, civil society tion of people living in poverty. is understood as the myriad of groups and Civil society understood as the public intermediary institutions which stand sphere encompasses the political realm and between the individual/family and the state. ways in which civil society organisations

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 Bunyan 491 seek to build sufficient power and legitimacy society to effectively address poverty and to shape public policy and contest the inequality can be understood as being public sphere. The activity of unions and weakened to the extent that the dimensions social movements provide examples of civil are seen in isolation from each other. For society organisations which adopt an example, an approach which focuses on overtly political approach in seeking to individual agency and charitable giving, bring about change. In recent decades, but pays little attention to the structural shaped by neoliberal ideology, social and nature of poverty and the need for engage- political change has tended to be framed ment in the political and public sphere will as more consensus-based, i.e. in terms of not lead to sustainable and long-term solu- increased co-operation between the state, tions. Similarly, a coherent and rational market and civil society. For example, argument about how best to tackle poverty, ‘partnership’ under New Labour and the or a vision of the good society divorced ‘Big Society’ under the Conservative-led from a political strategy or local institu- coalition both countenanced an ever greater tional support, will lack roots and legitim- role for civil society and more equitable acy and fail to materialise. Put in more relations between the different sectors – positive terms poverty is most effectively state, market and civil society. In reality addressed by civil society when strategies the opposite has largely been the case as are employed which encompass all of the neo-liberal hegemony, actively promulgated dimensions of civil society identified by through what Harvey (2005) has referred Edwards. Later in the article, I shall argue to as the ‘state-market nexus’ has remained that the living wage campaign in the way it firmly entrenched. Through the employ- has developed in the UK provides a good ment of ‘managerial technologies’ example of a civil society initiative which in (MacKinnon, 2000) and private sector prac- encompassing each of the dimensions iden- tices, such as contracting and commission- tified by Edwards has developed the polit- ing, the practices of civil society and third ical efficacy to bring about significant sector organisations have been impacted change. significantly, involving, among other things, a shift towards service delivery at Social justice as redistribution the expense of other forms of engagement and recognition such as advocacy and campaigning (DeFilippis et al., 2010). Issues of poverty and inequality lie at the For the purpose of analysis Edwards’ heart of the struggle for social justice and three dimensions have been separated out a fairer society. In recent philosophical but it is in understanding the ways in exchanges and debates claims for social which they are inextricably linked that defi- justice have increasingly been divided into ciencies in the response of civil society to two types. On the one hand, social justice poverty and inequality can be best concep- is understood primarily in redistributive tualised. As Edwards says, ‘Standing alone, terms, as a more just distribution of associational life, the public sphere and the resources and wealth from, for example, good society are each incomplete. Side by the North to the South, from rich to poor side, there is at least a chance that their and from owners to workers (Fraser and strengths and weaknesses can be harmo- Honneth, 2004). On the other hand, the nised, and that all three can benefit from a struggle for recognition by groups and peo- positive and conscious interaction’ (2010: ples who suffer injustice has gained increas- 106). To this end, the capacity for civil ing currency as the best way for social

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 492 Local Economy 31(4) justice to be understood and conceptualised. of unions combined with austerity in recent To quote Axel Honneth, one of the main years has further weakened such claims. protagonists of such a view ‘... what is This has been problematic for those on the needed is a basic conceptual shift to the nor- Left who continue to see the state as the mative premises of a theory of recognition primary means for creating a more equal that locates the core of all experiences of and just society. It has also been problem- injustices in the withdrawal of social atic for civil society which has depended recognition, in the phenomena of humili- upon the state for resources and to inter- ation and disrespect’ (Fraser and Honneth, vene to protect citizens from the exploit- 2004: 134). In thinking about the role of ative excesses of the market. civil society in addressing issues of poverty In recent years the term ‘pre-distribu- and inequality the distinction is helpful both tion’, has increasingly been used to signal in terms of understanding the ways in which a shift away from the state as the primary social justice claims based on redistribution arbiter of the means of redistribution. Pre- have been weakened over time and in distribution refers to the processes by which understanding tensions which exist particu- the market distributes its rewards before larly between those on the Left, who place government gets involved, through for the emphasis on either redistribution or rec- example the work of unions and wages ognition, a combination of both or indeed councils. In September 2012, in a speech in other concepts in advocating different the City of London Ed Milliband unveiled approaches to social justice. his ‘pre-distribution’ plan saying that In terms of understanding the weakening instead of redistributing wealth through of social justice claims based on redistribu- the tax and benefit system, there should be tion it is important to understand changes more ‘pre-distribution’, based upon a higher in the political economy from the Second skilled, higher waged economy, rather than World War onwards. In very broad terms, the ‘top-up’ of wages through redistribu- the social democratic consensus from the tion. How this was to translate into policy end of the Second World War to the 1970s remained largely moot, given sensitivities at saw the state play a central role in regulat- the time around Labour’s pro-business cre- ing the market and in building the welfare dentials. Milliband’s successor Jeremy state, leading to significant advances in Corbyn has been more specific, recently addressing levels of poverty and inequality proposing barring companies from distri- in the UK. In the early 1970s in an increas- buting dividends unless they pay the living ingly turbulent economic climate, the post- wage. Whatever the policy implications the war social democratic consensus began to substantive point is that within the context break down, prompting fundamental of neoliberalism and ‘... at a time when assumptions about the role of the state in there is little enthusiasm, for both ideo- the provision of social welfare to be ques- logical and practical reasons, for increasing tioned (Fraser, 2003). The turn to the the role of the state’ (Wills and Linneker, market heralding the era of neoliberalism 2014: 183) claims of social justice through from the 1980s to the present day has seen state intervention on a redistributive or pre- a steady rise in inequality and fluctuating distributive basis has become increasingly but significantly high levels of poverty. hard to make particularly in the arena of One of the effects of neoliberalism and its electoral politics. predominance from the 1980s onwards has Alongside, or in contradistinction to been to weaken social justice claims based redistribution, increasing attention has on redistribution. The erosion of the power been paid in recent years to the notion of

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 Bunyan 493 recognition in theorising the nature of social redistribution and recognition in a single justice. In ‘Justice and the Politics of normative framework. In an essay entitled Difference’, Iris Young challenges what ‘Culture, Political Economy and Difference: she sees as the reduction of social justice On Iris Young’s Justice and the Politics of to distributive justice. Young says, Difference’ (1997) Fraser takes issue with Young maintaining, among other things, In criticising distributively oriented the- ories I wish neither to reject distribution that she overstates the recognition para- as unimportant nor to offer a new positive digm and that her treatment of political theory to replace the distributive theories. economy and the distributive paradigm is I wish rather to displace talk of justice that cursory and underdeveloped theoretically. regards persons as primarily possessors It is beyond the scope of this article to and consumers of goods to a wider context look in detail at the different theoretical that includes action, decisions about arguments, often complex and competing, action, and provision of the means to that have coalesced around the redistribu- develop and exercise capacities. (1990: 16) tion/recognition conceptual framework for understanding claims of social justice. But In developing a conception of justice for the purpose of thinking about the role of around recognition and the effects of civil society in addressing issues of poverty domination and oppression rather than dis- and inequality what some of these different tribution, Young envisages social justice as theoretical perspectives point to is distinc- arising from the expression of plurality, tions on the left between what can be diversity and difference, as dominated and described as state-centric as opposed to oppressed groups, including women, Black civil society-centric perspectives which people, homosexuals and disabled people place different emphases on the place of pol- act in collective and democratic ways to itical economy, culture, structure and challenge such injustices. Young’s approach agency in explaining social and political to social justice provides a strong concep- change. This will be explored further later tual framework for thinking about the role in the article in framing an understanding of of civil society and social movements in the living wage campaign and the commu- addressing poverty and inequality and nity organising approach as constituting a promoting social justice. Essentially, in the distinct form of civil society-led politics. words of Young it is ‘... to promote a pol- itics of inclusion ...’ through which ‘...par- The living wage campaign ticipatory democracy must promote the in the UK ideal of a heterogeneous public, in which persons stand forth with their differences Origins and early tactics acknowledged and respected, though per- haps not completely understood, by The idea of a living wage has a long history others’ (p. 119). This understanding going back to the nineteenth century. It was approximates closely with the approach of described then as the idea that ‘wages community organising upon which the should be sufficiently high to enable the living wage campaign has been based, fea- labourer to live in a manner consistent tures of which will be highlighted later in with the dignity of a human being’ the article. (Bennett, 2012, quoting Ryan, 1906: vii). Nancy Fraser, another leading theorist In more recent times the living wage is of social justice, advocates a theory of most closely associated with the campaign social justice which combines both initiated in 2001 by London Citizens,

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 494 Local Economy 31(4) the largest affiliate of Citizens UK, which ‘national living wage’ introduced in April for over two decades has promoted commu- 2016 will be discussed later in the article). nity organising as an approach to engaging The former refers to a legally binding citizens in political and social action. figure set by the Low Pay Commission, The community organising approach has according to a judgement about what been central to the success of the Living employers can afford – it currently stands Wage campaign in the UK. Community at £6.70 per hour for over 21s and £5.30 organising understands social change as per hour for 18 to 20 year olds. The latter being both a consensus and conflict based by contrast is calculated based on the pub- process with an analysis of power central to lic’s perception of what is needed for a the strategy and political tactics employed. minimum acceptable standard of living Power to engage in the political process and for different family types; in other words the public sphere is generated through the ‘... a living wage is designed to reflect the institutional membership of the organisa- local cost of living and the real cost of life’ tion, made up of faith groups, schools, (Wills and Linneker, 2014: 183). It cur- universities, charities, unions, community rently stands at £8.25 outside London groups and housing associations. London and £9.40 in London. Citizens now has over two hundred and The modern living wage campaign was fifty member organisations across the initiated in 2001 by The East London Greater London area. The organisation Communities Organisation (TELCO), the works on a multi-issue agenda which along- first chapter of London Citizens. The side the flagship living wage campaign also campaign significantly raised the profile of includes campaigns on social care, jobs, community organising in the UK bringing affordable housing, street safety, challen- into membership for the first time, local ging usury, the resettlement of refugees union branches and helping to build alli- and ending the detention of children in the ances with some of the major national UK asylum process. unions, most notably UNITE. The initial The prevalence of in-work poverty has focus was on contracted cleaners servicing shifted significantly in recent decades. the large finance institutions based at More people in-work than out of work Canary Wharf, including HSBC and now experience poverty in the UK, challen- Barclays. Public bodies such as Hospital ging the assumption that work is the best Trusts, which also contracted out their way out of poverty. Wills and Linneker cleaning services to large multinational (2014) point to a number of reasons for companies were also targeted. the increased role of low wages in the The approach in the early years was causes of poverty, including the political more agitational than conciliatory, focusing attack launched on institutions of pre-dis- on the plight of contract cleaners, some of tribution, such as unions and wage councils, whom had to work two or in some cases by the Thatcher governments after 1979 and three jobs to make ends meet. Many of a national minimum wage, which whilst the cleaners were from faith groups and having a positive overall impact since union branches within membership of being introduced by New Labour in 1998, London Citizens. Tactics included action nevertheless being set at too low a rate to at shareholder AGMs, public assemblies, stem the rising tide of in-work poverty. It is and in the case of hospital trusts, lobbying worth making the distinction at this point board meetings with large numbers of between a statutory minimum wage and a people. In most cases such action followed voluntary living wage (the issue of the rejection by the financial institution or

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 Bunyan 495 public body of an initial request for a meet- raising the profile and impact of the living ing to discuss the case for the living wage wage. Between 2009 and 2013 the Trust and the opportunity for low paid workers invested almost £1 million in the campaign, themselves to talk about their experiences which involved three main strands. First, and the impact poverty wages was having increasing awareness raising and campaign on them and their families. In the first work by London Citizens, with a focus on instance, therefore tactics reflected the key sectors such as retail/hospitality, public need for recognition both in terms of (particularly local authorities) and higher the legitimacy of the organisation and the education. Second, the creation of the issue of a living wage. As the membership to accredit and the power and profile of London employers and to monitor on-going compli- Citizens has grown, the political repertoire ance, and third, ongoing research about dif- of action has also increased to include vari- ferent aspects of the living wage including ous forms of direct action and public assem- assessing the costs and benefits to employers blies, allowing the organisation to employ and workers of being paid a living wage. both consensus and conflict based tactics An independent evaluation of the living for advantage at different points of the wage initiative, carried out by Cambridge campaign. Policy Consultants, published in September In the first few years the living wage cam- 2014, indicated that the Trust had success- paign gathered increasing momentum but it fully delivered on what it set out to achieve. remained relatively marginal to mainstream The report highlighted the establishment of politics and public and media attention. the Living Wage Foundation as being a vital Some of the organisations initially targeted element in providing the infrastructure to did agree to increase the pay of their con- support the ‘mainstreaming’ of the living tracted cleaners, most notably HSBC, at its wage and for putting in place a process to world headquarters in Canary Wharf where formally accredit living wage employers. pressure from the campaign resulted in an Commenting on the continued role for com- increase in pay from £5.00 to £6.00 an hour munity organising in the living wage cam- in 2003. Most significantly, in 2005 the paign in future the report said: , and The theory of change supporting the the (GLA) set Special Initiative and Citizens UK’s up the Living Wage Unit in response to a living wage work has shifted over the Mayoral election pledge made to London course of the four-year initiative from a Citizens and since then the unit has been campaigning model focused on reputa- responsible for calculating the London tional risk to one emphasising reputational Living Wage each year. Livingstone’s suc- benefits. This has been successful because cessor, has been a vocal sup- the campaign was able to secure a main- porter and advocate of the living wage since stream profile. (Cambridge Policy he took office in May 2008. Consultants, 2014: 9)

Trust for London and The Living The balance between an emphasis on repu- Wage Foundation tational risk and reputational benefit remains central to the campaign and the In 2009, Trust for London, a charitable tactics employed. In crude terms, the organisation which exists to reduce poverty ‘carrot’ of reputational benefit through and inequality in London, launched a accreditation, augmented on occasions by special initiative aimed at significantly the ‘stick’ of campaigning by Citizens UK,

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 496 Local Economy 31(4) including targeting and ‘naming and Wage is calculated based on the public’s shaming’ organisations such as Tesco, perception of what is needed for a min- Marks & Spencers and Next, which fail to imum acceptable standard of living for dif- pay the living wage, continues to serve as an ferent family types. It is a voluntary wage effective campaign strategy. The strategy rate that employers are encouraged to pay to help workers and families achieve that also highlights both the significant role standard. (D’Arcy and Kelly, 2015: 3) independent Trusts and Foundations can play in supporting civil society organisa- This wasn’t the first time that a tions to address issues of poverty and Conservative-led government had co-opted inequality and the importance of an inde- ideas and practices from Citizens UK for pendent broad-based community organisa- political ends. At the beginning of the last tion able to deploy different tactics through parliament in 2010 the coalition govern- having a large number of diverse institu- ment launched the community organiser tions at a local level ready to turn out programme to train 5000 community organ- large numbers of people to take action. isers as part of the ‘Big Society’ initiative. Having successfully pioneered community A ‘national living wage’? organising in the UK and with a strong track record, Citizens UK had been the The announcement in the 2015 budget of a frontrunner, to run the multi-million ‘national living wage’ by the Chancellor of pound government contract but lost out in the Exchequer, George Osborne was unex- the end to the organisation ‘Locality’. In the pected and came as a surprise to many, not case of the community organising pro- least the organisers and leaders within gramme the government-sponsored version Citizens UK who had driven the campaign differed markedly from the practices and for many years. On one level it represented philosophy of Citizens UK and the same national recognition and a significant vic- can be said now of the ‘national living tory for Citizens UK after almost fifteen wage’. Should this really matter? In trans- years of campaigning. However, at another lating the ideas and practices of civil society level, it raised more questions than answers. into policy did it not represent recognition As one commentator remarked about the on the part of government for the work and ‘national living wage’ – ‘Just because I call achievement of Citizens UK over many my cat Rover, it doesn’t make it a dog’ years? Yes, but only up to a point – the (Kelly, 2015). Initial analysis of the implica- problem being that in both cases govern- tions of the National Living Wage (NLW) ment co-option of civil society practices by the Resolution Foundation referred to a and initiatives, changed fundamentally ‘terminological muddle’. The report said: their original orientation and intention. It is difficult to project the future direc- The title of the new policy – the National Living Wage (NLW) – adds significant tion of the living wage campaign, given the confusion to what was already a muddled introduction of the national living wage in debate on the purpose and definitions of April 2016. Interestingly, but perhaps not the various rates. The NLW is a large surprising given the more limited impact increase in the legal wage floor, a role the national living wage will have on that is currently played by the National Londoners (and putting aside his media- Minimum Wage (NMW). The Living hyped rivalry with George Osborne for the Wage as we know it is overseen by the future Conservative party leadership), Boris Living Wage Foundation and has a very Johnson has made a number of utterances different logic underlying it. The Living about the importance of keeping in focus

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 Bunyan 497 the living wage as accredited by the Living approach upon which the campaign has Wage Foundation and in his words ‘not let- been built. ting the wind go out of the sails of the cam- First, in terms of civil society as associ- paign’. The recent decision by IKEA and ational life, the institutional membership of ALDI, after the announcement of the London Citizens, now numbering over two national living wage, to become the first hundred and fifty organisations, has driven major retailers to agree to pay the accre- the campaign connecting to low paid work- dited living wage, represents a significant ers within a diverse range of organisations breakthrough for the campaign and may and localities and providing the support, well signal its future direction as companies people and leadership that has sustained consider the reputational benefits and the campaign over many years. In terms of choose to trump the national living wage social justice understood as recognition, the and align themselves with a progressive building of power through collective action cause and campaign. Over two thousand for recognition within the context of the companies and organisations are now accre- public sphere, represents the fundamental dited living wage employers. The institution purpose and raison d’etre of community in 2013 of a living wage week each year in organising. Recognition is understood in the first week of November during which terms of struggle, dignity and respect, exem- the new rates for London and outside plified in the involvement and personal tes- London are announced has also provided timony of low paid workers at public an important focal point keeping the issue actions and large public assemblies which of in-work poverty firmly on the political has been central to the strategy and tactics agenda. That said, the introduction of the employed in the campaign. The community national living wage in April 2016 has the organiser, Michael Gecan, in his book potential both for confusion and for diluting ‘Going Public’ highlights the significance the salience of the accredited living wage. In of power and recognition as the driving response to this the Living Wage force of change in the world as it is. He says: Foundation announced at the beginning of Without power there is no real recogni- January 2016 that a new eight-member com- tion. They don’t even see you. They mission was to be set up, chaired by Gavin never learn your name. Without recogni- Kelly, Chief Executive of the Resolution tion, there’s no reciprocity; there’s not Trust and also including Frances O’Grady, even a ‘you’ to respond to. And without General Secretary of the TUC, to spearhead reciprocity there’s no real relationship of efforts to win over more employers to the respect. (Gecan, 2002: 36) higher accredited living wage. The campaign has now become a national The role of civil society in campaign spreading to many other cities promoting social justice and areas across the country drawing in hundreds of other local institutions. In add- The living wage campaign has been sus- ition, the links and working relationships tained over many years. In this final section, formed with unions have been highly signifi- with reference to the earlier discussion on cant albeit not without its difficulties (see the conceptualisation of civil society and article by Jane Holgate, 2013 entitled social justice, I shall draw out some of the ‘Faith in unions: From safe spaces to orga- ways in which this has been achieved, nised labour?’). highlighting in particular the significance Second, the epistemological basis of of the broad based community organising community organising and the vision of

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 498 Local Economy 31(4) the good society promoted by Citizens UK problem, poverty, into a winnable issue, is understood as something that emerges the fight for a living wage. In his analysis out of struggle and the tension between of broad based community organising and ‘the world as it is’ and the ‘world as it the approach of Citizens UK and its main should be’. According to Chambers: affiliate London Citizens in building polit- ical agency, Bretherton highlights the dis- ... it is the fate of human beings to exist in-between the world as it is and the world tinction made between ‘problems’ and as it should be. Reflective people of con- ‘issues’. He says: science are constantly and painfully aware A problem is an amorphous, multifaceted, of the gap between our so-called values and generalised structural condition such and the facts of life in the everyday as crime or poverty or a lack of affordable world within which we operate ... The housing. In contrast to a problem, an tension between the two worlds is the ‘issue’ is a specific and potentially ‘win- root of radical action for justice and dem- nable’ course of action or proposal tar- ocracy. (Chambers, 2003: 29) geted at specific people and institutions ... A central insight of broad based com- Third, and linked to the last point is the munity organising as a form of political importance in community organising of an action is that motivating and mobilising understanding of the public sphere as being people to act together for change entails identifying the possibilities for agency essentially contested between market, state through breaking structural problems and civil society actors (Bunyan, 2013). down into winnable issues. (Bretherton, Within the academic literature a distinction 2015: 132) is often made between community develop- ment and community organising, the Finally, in terms of social justice understood former being identified as a more consen- in redistributive terms we can say that the sus-based approach and the latter more living wage campaign represents a signifi- conflict-based. The distinction represents, cant civil society-led intervention and in my view, a false dichotomy in that the means of pre-distribution. As discussed ear- repertoire of political action available to lier, within the context of neo-liberalism, an organisation depends largely upon the exacerbated in recent years by austerity, power it is able to generate, particularly in arguments for the redistribution of terms of numbers of people and their will- resources to the poor through increased ingness to act for change. The aim is not be state intervention have become increasingly conflictual for the sake of conflict or as a difficult to make. Against this challenging result of a predisposed ideology. Rather in context the living wage campaign has seeking recognition for the issue at hand, shown that civil society organisations can with the aim of moving to some form of organise effectively and generate sufficient consensus, it is more advantageous for agency to influence both the market and civil society organisations to have a poten- the state in the way that resources are tially wide repertoire of political action and distributed. a range of different available tactics, both consensus- and conflict-based. The living Civil society and radical wage campaign in the way it has evolved democratic politics provides a good example of such a strategy and approach. The broader question going forward in Fourth, has been the way the campaign thinking about the nature of social justice has managed to break down a structural and the role of civil society in addressing

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 Bunyan 499 issues of poverty and inequality is whether a the Left are struggling with this problematic progressive politics can be forged in which and there is much, I would contend, that civil society plays an increasingly central community organising can draw upon in role. A number of criticisms have been developing a broader strategic view and a levelled at community organising, particu- stronger theoretical basis. larly from the left, for example that it For example, in their analysis of socialist remains primarily focused on the local and strategy and call for a new form of radical thus is limited in its capacity and potential and democratic politics, Laclau and Mouffe to impact at a structural and broader point to the contingent nature of what they national level. Also, that the non-partisan term, ‘the social’, i.e. society, and the possi- stance of community organising to electoral bilities for a new hegemonic strategy which party politics similarly limits its potential focuses on civil society as much as the state. broader impact. Against these claims and They say, within the context of the UK it can be It is not in the abandonment of the demo- said that community organising whilst cratic terrain but, on the contrary, in the retaining a focus on the local has moved extension of the field of democratic strug- onto a broader stage through both develop- gles to the whole of civil society and the ing effective city-wide organisations, most state that the possibility resides for a hege- notably London Citizens, and building monic strategy of the Left. It is neverthe- effective campaigns such as the living wage less important to understand the radical campaign and most recently the campaign extent of the changes which are necessary to resettle Syrian refugees. It can be also in the political imaginary of the Left if it argued that community organising has had wishes to succeed in founding a political a significant impact on policy and party pol- practice fully located in the field of the democratic revolution and conscious of itics. As mentioned earlier, whether one the hegemonic articulations which the pre- agrees with them or not, the ‘Big Society’ sent conjuncture requires. (2001: 176) community organising programme and the national living wage were ideas co-opted The authors highlight a number of obstacles from community organising by the which in their view seriously limits the Conservative party. Similarly, the develop- Left’s capacity for action and political ment of the Blue Labour project, as nar- analysis. First, statism – ‘the idea that the rated in Rowenna Davis’s (2011) book expansion of the role of the state is the ‘Tangled up in Blue: Blue Labour and the panacea for all problems’ (p. 177); second, Struggle for Labour’s Soul’ highlighted the classism – ‘the idea that the working class central role of community organising and represents the privileged agent in which the its impact on the main protagonist and fundamental impulse of social change res- architect of Blue Labour, the peer Maurice ides’ (p. 177); thirdly, revolution, under- Glasman. stood in the Jacobin mould, that is, the That said, it is my contention that if com- idea that power could be seized in a decisive munity organising is to continue to grow moment or event ‘from which society could and have greater influence and impact at a be ‘‘rationally’’ reorganised’ (p. 177). In broader level, there is work to done in questioning these tenets of leftist thinking, developing a stronger theoretical basis for Laclau and Mouffe’s central argument is the work, not least in better understanding that social change and radical democracy the condition of neo-liberal hegemony and need to be conceived in terms of a plurality how this is best countered and challenged of struggles: ‘The multiplication of political on a broader political front. Thinkers on spaces and the preventing of power in one

Downloaded from lec.sagepub.com at Edge Hill University on September 22, 2016 500 Local Economy 31(4) point are then the preconditions of every promote an alternative vision of the world truly democratic transformation of society’ as it should be, free from poverty and (p. 178). inequality. Based upon a normative under- In advocating a move away from essen- standing of social and political change as tialist thinking which conceives of social arising from struggle and tension as much change in a particular way, i.e. in terms of as consensus, the living wage campaign and state, class and revolution, Laclau and the practice of community organising more Mouffe challenge the Left to think in more generally points to the possibilities of a new expansive terms about how to combat what kind of politics in which civil society builds they term the ‘anti-democratic offensive’ sufficient power to more effectively embodied in recent times by neo-liberal challenge the practices of the market and hegemony. To this end, they contend, it is state which diminishes human dignity. both the state and civil society which should To this end, it represents one of the most be conceived as the terrain upon which successful civil society-led initiatives to human agency and the multiplication of reduce poverty and inequality in the UK political spaces and democratic struggles in recent decades. are to be developed. Marrying analysis of radical democratic politics from the left with the practice and Declaration of conflicting interests theory of community organising is a poten- The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of tially complex task beyond the scope of this interest with respect to the research, authorship, paper but it is my contention that the living and/or publication of this article. wage campaign and the approach of com- munity organising more generally, as seen in the practice of Citizens UK, provides an Funding important example of a form of radical The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following democratic civil society-led politics which financial support for the research, authorship, sits within the conceptual analysis and and/or publication of this article: the Webb framework advocated by Laclau and Memorial Trust. Mouffe. References Conclusion Bretherton L (2015) Resurrecting Democracy: Faith Citizenship and the Politics of a The so-called ‘national living wage’ for over Common Life. Cambridge: Cambridge 25s implemented in April 2016 represents a University Press. significant intervention by the Conservative Bunyan P (2013) Re-conceptualising civil soci- government but like its predecessor the ety: Towards a radical understanding. national minimum wage introduced by VOLUNTAS: International Journal of New Labour in 1998 it is set too low to Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations 25(2): effectively address poverty and inequality 538–552. Cambridge Policy Consultants (2014) Living Wage in the UK. Special Initiative Evaluation.Cambridge: In a neo-liberal age in which the market Cambridge Publishing Management Ltd. fails to pay sufficient wages to ensure a Chambers E (2003) Roots for Radicals. New decent standard of living and the state York, NY: The Continuum International fails to legislate to compel the market to Publishing Group Ltd. do so, then it is right that civil society D’Arcy C and Kelly G (2015) Analysing the organisations contest the public sphere to National Living Wage: Impact and

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