Staff perspectives on how social liberal and neo-liberal values influence the implementation of leisure access policy

Abstract

There is a growing body of literature on the consequences of the rise of neo-liberalism in local government but little research has been done on how this is affecting municipal recreation staff responsible for implementing leisure access policies that provide subsidies for citizens requiring financial assistance. Given that municipal recreation has been historically guided by social liberal values it is possible that staff face a clash between personal and workplace values. The purpose of this study was to obtain staff perspectives on how neo-liberal and social liberal values are reflected in their workplace environments, as well as their personal approaches to leisure access policy implementation. The study entailed interviews and focus groups with 20 staff from different neighbourhoods in a large metropolitan Canadian city, along with an analysis of related documents. The findings revealed that both social liberal and neo-liberal values operated in the workplace and in personal approaches to leisure access policy work, although in different capacities for different staff and community centres. The coexistence of values representing typically opposing ideologies often contributed to tensions because of value incongruity, but at other times were seen as complementary. The findings challenge simplistic binary conceptions that typically depict leisure access policy work as being social liberal and ‘good’ and government work environments as being neo-liberal and ‘bad’, building on research that suggests the values underpinning public sector policy are more complex and fluid in nature.