Voluntary sector advice agencies have performed an important function in providing free, accessible advice in the UK for many decades. As legal aid is slashed, and ‘austerity’ leaves everyday life for many ever more precarious, their role has never been more essential. Advice agencies provide a dynamic and increasingly significant transition point where the rights, responsibilities and grievances of the individual are brought into dialogue with formal legal structures. Drawing on ideas from the ‘sociology of translation’, this paper sets out to consider the multiple, complex roles these organizations play. They are involved not simply in the delivery of advice to individuals, but in a collective concern that translates personal grievances into matters-of-public-concern. The paper concludes by considering the implications for an emerging research agenda that considers advice organizations as legal actors in a fragmenting world.
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