Neoliberal enrolment? The ‘partnership turn’ in government rhetoric and policy

Abstract

This chapter reviews the development of ‘partnership’ rhetoric and policy through successive UK governments, and the impact of this on the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland. We will see that whilst notions of voluntarism and active citizenship played an important role in the Thatcherite project of rolling back the state, it was during the New Labour era that ‘partnership’ became a key theme in policy narratives surrounding the sector and government-sector relationships. The chapter then traces the nature of the relationship between the sector and the coalition and Conservative-led governments at a time of austerity and the roll-out of an increasingly punitive form of neoliberalism. The second part of the chapter explores the historical role of the voluntary and community sector in Northern Ireland and how the sector has been shaped by a complex mix of Westminster policy, EU peace programmes and political processes specific to NI.