New Australia book on the Third Sector in Australia

I look forward to reading  the new book Driven by Purpose: Charities that Make a Difference by Australian authors Stephen Judd and Ann Robinson.

In particular, those of us committed to the growth, importance and value of the third sector need more books like this, written by Australians who work in the third sector and who write about the Australian sector from an Australia perspective. And we need more publications and book publishers willing to publish about the sector.

A brief review of the book here  in Third Sector Magazine tells us that:

Driven by purpose is a new handbook on how to lead and manage an efficient and accountable NFP organisation and contains insightful commentary on the current debate, strategy and action surrounding the role of the charitable sector in Australia.

Driven by purpose is written by Dr Stephen Judd and Anne Robinson, two of Australia’s most experienced and respected leaders in the NFP sector, as well as Felicity Errington who is an emerging leader with expertise in research and policy, international development and gender issues.

The book highlights the importance of being purpose-driven, explaining that it affects the character, operation, direction and strategies of an organisation.

The book explains that a truly purpose-driven NFP has the ‘who’ and ‘why’ at its very core saying “These are not simply academic theories and concepts that are nice to have but affect the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the organisation, and are essential for organisations to deliver high performance.

 Driven by purpose sheds light on the important issues of identity and purpose by exploring:

• The scope and size of the NFP sector in Australia
• The history of the NFP sector in Australia
• The role that NFPs play in society and why they are vital for a healthy society
• What is meant by ‘charity’ and language wars that affect its identity
• Whether the predominance of faith-based charities in Australia an issue
• In addition, the book explores how being purpose-driven works in practice, and provides ten useful tips on how to survive NFP law".

Whilst I concur completely with the idea that successful NGO's are purpose driven and that a focus on being "purpose driven" should shape all key aspects of an agency including its character, operation culture direction and strategy, I am also somewhat wary of  the idea that NGO's can find singular recipes for success. But I will know more about that once I read the book.

NGO's: the trojan horse for market, corporate and state power?

 David Harvey in his book A Short History of Neoliberalism:

The rise of advocacy groups and NGOs has...accompanied the neoliberal turn and increased spectacularly since 1980 or so. The NGOs have in many instances stepped into the vacuum in social provision left by the withdrawal of the state from such activities. This amounts to privatization by NGO. In some instances, this has helped accelerate further state withdrawal from social provision. NGOs thereby function as "Trojan horses for neoliberal globalization."

 Mike Davis in The Planet of Slums:

Third World NGOs have proven brilliant at co-opting local leadership as well as hegemonizing the social space traditionally occupied by the Left. Even if there are some celebrated exceptions--such as the militant NGOs so instrumental in creating the World Social Forums--the broad impact of the NGO/"civil society revolution"...has been to bureaucratize and deradicalize urban social movements.

Book Review: Disability and Euthansia in a Market Society

Gavin Mooney has reviewed this book by Western Australian disability advocate and activist Erik Leopldt. Erik's book is based on his PhD thesis.

A Book Review by Gavin Mooney

Book Reviewed:

Erik Leipoldt (2010) Euthanasia and Disability Perspective: An Investigation in The Netherlands and Australia VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft, Saarbrücken

Each of the two central issues in this book - euthanasia and disability - is big in itself. Bringing the two together is a monumental task and especially when this is set in a values framework. The author succeeds in his efforts to do this and in a way which is both accessible and challenging.

The purposes of the study reported in this book were (p39) `to discuss Dutch and Australian disability perspectives towards euthanasia and physician assisted suicide; and to find how the life experiences of the informants [people with quadriplegia] ... may illuminate these perspectives'.

Yet to me the central theme of the book is not euthanasia as such nor indeed disability. What the book questions in debating these themes is what autonomy is and whether it merits being seen as so much of an individualistic phenomenon as it so often is, at least in this neo liberal world in which so many of us live. As Leipoldt argues `individual autonomy is the dominant discourse of our age'.

Without disagreeing I wonder if things are not changing. I have in the past been much struck by the work of the likes of Catriona McKenzie, Diana Meyers and Natale Stoljar [1] on relational autonomy and the idea of `community autonomy'. Despite the efforts of so many economists today (this reviewer is an economist) - particularly market economists - and many liberal philosophers to see us all as free floating atoms, that depiction of human beings just somehow does not ring true. We are social animals, we rely on others to some extent and maybe even take our identities in part from our interactions with others. And the interdependency of peoples across the globe has been heightened yet further by both the Global Financial Crisis and the threat of climate change. OK the impact of these on government policies and in turn on human relationships have not really percolated through yet. But this is one `trickling down' that I am confident will trickle down.

Certainly Rawls' placing of individuals behind his veil of ignorance was simply a philosophical construct to aid understanding. Yet it is so false that one has to question how valuable that device is in reaching any sort of understanding of what it means to be a person. Behind a veil of ignorance or a free floating atom? In an odd sense, much of a muchness and much of an unreality.

So for Leipoldt to look at euthanasia through the eyes of 28 people with quadriplegia in Australia and the Netherlands provides not only a novel view but one that in turn challenges the notion of individual autonomy in a most useful fashion. Whatever else, no one reading this will ever again see autonomy in quite the same way - unless maybe a person with disabilities.

The views of people with quadriplegia on this issue have not been examined before which is a quite startling revelation in itself. Leipoldt suggests (p38): `The perspective of people with disabilities may be able to contribute new ... aspects to the euthanasia debate. Major physical, social and psychological changes and challenges arise for a person who acquires a significant disability like quadriplegia.'

On the question of autonomy and individualism the shift to more of the latter is highlighted by one respondent (p 170): `people are becoming more assertive and demand more. I think that if you look ten years ahead people's autonomy will go further ... I think society will become more and more individualistic.'

The book is insightful on the issue of dependency with one response (p 205) suggesting that `dependency gives a very deep relationship with people and you'. And again (p 209): `How do we look at things like interdependence, that are the bigger issues? Because it doesn't matter how dependent or independent you are if you have people around you and you are part of what's happening and contributing to that then whether you can do it on your own isn't the issue.' Wonderfully for me, issues of reciprocity, mutuality, participation, sharing and caring shriek out from these pages.

There is a sense in which what this book tells us primarily in capturing the views of a group who are in many ways dependent and vulnerable as people with disabilities are two things. First interdependence and dependence are not negative traits; and second in some sense or other to be complete human beings we need to be interdependent and dependent and we need to recognise that need. These are particularly interesting issues in the very specific context of the main thrust for the author of this book i.e. euthanasia and disability. But for me the book shows that worshipping at the altar of individual autonomy or even individualistic autonomy is to bow down before false Gods. Such autonomy is almost certainly not attainable and, even if were, it aint worth attaining.

This is a powerful book at many levels.

Reference
1. C Mackenzie and N Stoljar (eds) 2000. Relational Autonomy. Oxford: OUP.