Lost in austerity: rethinking the community sector

Abstract

In Ireland, crises are multiple – unemployment, mortgage defaults, banking collapse, social divisions, deepening poverty and diminished public services, to list just a few. How should the community sector be responding? The sector itself faces crises, again multiple – funding cuts, threats of cooption by the state and the silencing of dissent. What should the community sector be doing to respond? The first instinct in a crisis is to survive. All energies get re-directed to the task of survival. People and organizations turn in on themselves, go back to what they know best and try to hang on until the crisis has passed. This response crowds out imagination, analysis and innovation. When this happens, crisis can only be a threat rather than an opportunity. The crises do present threats to the community sector. While funding cutbacks threaten its existence, the wider crises pose threats to its purpose and strategy. Crises also offer the necessary opportunity to rethink the community sector and its role. It would be remiss to fail to seize this opportunity.