The Co-Option of Radicalism: Conflict,Community and Civil Society: Community Action and Social Change in a Post-Colonial Context

Abstract

Many view the emergence of a community action dynamic as one having the constituency and the power to affect the pace of economic development. Such a dynamic implies a rejection of the planned economy as well as an embracing of the philosophy of `small-is-best'. Disenchanted by the failure to respond effectively to the widening gulf between rich and poor, some turned to an `inclusive community' politics as an alternative. A new political correctness appeared in which `community' rather than `class' becomes the motor for change. Many of these developments satisfy the `New' Labour leadership's needs aimed at minimizing the negative effects of their rejection of socialist solutions. Against that background community workers warmly embrace this new direction; endorse a new communitarianism in which forms of subsidiarity are expected to replace a diminishing welfare state. In this paper contrasting examples are presented as evidence of these changes. All represent the nature of the failing expectations taking place in the world of `community' politics as the concept of `social partnership'—driven by the needs of the state—becomes, instead, synonymous with compromise and concession. Much of this is set in the context of the post-colonial political development of Northern Ireland in a post `Good-Friday' agreement situation in which `community' continues to remain indistinguishable from sectarian division.

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