A Feminist Critique of the ‘Politics of Community’

This chapter critically interrogates the Coalition government’s Politics of Community (Robinson, 2008) agenda. Specifically, it looks at how the concept of The Broken Society is understood as the key hindrance to growth and prosperity and how the government proposes to solve this problem by empowering communities and local people via The Big Society. The chapter argues that this serves to legitimise both the politics of austerity and welfare retrenchment and a politics of discipline and criminalisation. By drawing on a theoretical framework inspired by the work of Loïc Waquant, this chapter highlights some of the devastating effects the Politics of Community agenda has had on the lives of women and in particular its effect on single mothers.