Solidarity and the future of global social policy: Looking for direction in local social activism

Abstract

This article follows on from an article written by Bob Deacon on the global politics of social solidarity. The article suggests that in an era characterized by social division and exclusion, global social policy has to pay more attention to concepts like community and solidarity. In doing so, policymakers and policy analysts should consider the impact for local social activism of decades of neoliberal influence on global and national social policy, for instance, sub-contracting social programmes and targeting low-income groups in service provision. Drawing on research conducted from 2004–2017 on grassroots social activism in the United Kingdom, I suggest that shifting practices of solidarity at a local level, particularly as a response to austerity, can provide practical examples and a conceptual framework for global social policy. Rather than assume the existence of identifiable communities susceptible to change through policy intervention, policies should acknowledge the fluidity of local collective identity, which after years of economic pressure and cuts to social welfare, is based on managing and redistributing resources and protecting individual rights. These trends can underpin reform of social policy, namely investing in collective action, especially across diverse ethnic and religious groups, to sustain values, overcome economic and social marginalization, and encourage cooperation over division.