Welfare rights, self-help and social enterprise: Unpicking neoliberalism’s mess

Abstract

Neoliberalism is often represented as a fundamental intrusion of individualism into post-war welfare policy settlements. This article seeks to unpick this understanding through a case study of the intersections between the welfare rights and self-help approaches of the homeless and community sectors in the 1970s and 1980s, and the emergence of social enterprise and The Big Issue in the 1990s. First, I outline the development of a dedicated ‘homeless sector’ in the 1970s. Second, the ways in which this sector developed in relation to challenges to state authority in social welfare is examined. Finally, I explore the discursive intersections between the critiques of the welfare state, and the ..