Baby Boomers and the Big Society

Citation

Eastman, M. (2013), "Baby Boomers and the Big Society", Working with Older People, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 41-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/13663661311312584

The notion that community empowerment enables local people to not only influence local decisions but become providers of services and thus change the nature and quality of that provision is largely seen “as a good thing”. Whether it can effectively address the breadth of existing social ills and conditions, is perhaps needing a wider debate. Wally Harbert has, in this publication, attempted to explore how the generation born between 1945 and 1964 can, through their collective “liberalism, empowerment, freedom or responsibility” ensure the successful “redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the (older)man and woman on the street”!

Drawing on pioneers such as Ruskin and Morris, but equally could have included Robert Owen, the author has produced an extremely accessible and challenging argument to evidence the potential power of volunteerism – providing the volunteers “feel they have some control” – in other words, “Helping the volunteers to find themselves” (Chapter 13). There were times in reading the book that I wanted to shout aloud in celebration of the arguments and, at others, scream in frustration when taken down cul‐ de‐ sacs of, for me, false assumptions. The mark therefore of a challenging and provocative narrative which this book certainly is.

Harbert needs little, if any, introduction to those of a certain professional generation given his background in social policy and social care at a national and international level. He brings therefore insight and experience to this unique debate drawing together the policy intentions behind the Big Society (an elusive concept) with the ageing demographic of which I am a member (born in 1949). The challenge was to attempt this project when, first, the Big Society has yet to find intellectual and practical purchase with the public and second, we are at the early stages of the boomer generation(s) – there are two – entering their middle and later years. There is no consensus on either count. In examining some of the social challenges facing the UK (and indeed Europe) and the potential of voluntarism in addressing them Harbert asserts that the voices of volunteers must be listened to.

Whether he has been successful largely depends on the readers' cultural, socio‐economic and life course experiences. Being an older volunteer in say Dagenham or Tower Hamlets (East London) or an older volunteer in Sutton and Cheam arguably determines their sense of empowerment. For the Big Society to realise its policy intentions and older volunteers to be instrumental in that achievement will be predicated on how far the boomer generation collectively become the tipping point that leads to real community empowerment.

The book is wide in scope and breadth and Herbert has successfully drawn on his considerable expertise to at least open the debate. That said much of that debate is predicated on the assumption that existing social problems and challenges are getting worse. Chapter 1 (The challenges) makes for depressing reading indeed and designed to evidence that “conventional ways of tackling these problems are failing”. Chapter 2 offers little respite for the reader siting the plasma screen in our living room which needs to be addressed feeding viewers (of all ages) with a continual diet of pernicious advertising and programmes that re enforce behaviours and attitudes that contribute to society's ills. Herbert concludes (scream loudly here) that “… if British people spent as much time volunteering as they do watching television, society would be transformed”. This came across as somewhat bluster and to be frank, a touch of the Daily Mail! In many ways Herbert appears to support the assumption of the so‐called “broken society”!

Chapter 3 “The voluntary industry” sets the scene and thus provides the framework and mind set by which social issues can be addressed via voluntarism. This chapter is an important one. It begins to explore the importance of the older volunteer and the boomer potential. I think I would have welcomed more emphasis on the collusion between civic and civil society relationships in that resource rich third sector charities and government officials and elected representatives keep the existing status quo, and hence re‐enforce existing power bases which exclude the voices of ordinary people in their communities. Boomers will not welcome being spoken to and represented by the filters of third sector professionals.

Chapters 4 and 5 provide a comprehensive account of nineteenth and twentieth century volunteerism. Whether these chapters contribute to the debate is questionable, but the author's sense of social history was nevertheless informative on its own terms.

The core of the debate is probably in Chapters 6 and 7 that relate to the ageing of the population and the boomer life cycle in that Harbert's narrative rightly postulates that the boomer can transform volunteerism and “the terms under which they may be expected to throw in their lot with the Big Society”. Important chapters these, which this reviewer found inspirational. It is hoped that the linkage and relevance of Wilkinson and Pickett's The Spirit Level (2009) which is quoted by Harbert, and Owen Jones' Chavs – The Demonization of the Working Class (2011) which was not referenced, is not lost on informed readers.

The remaining chapters (8‐13) continue the theme and focus on broader voluntary enterprises. I would liked to have seen more of Herbert's thinking on civil society and democratization of engagement as it relates to the wider determinants of social justice, equality and exclusion.

Does the book add to our knowledge of the boomer in the age of the Big Society? – certainly. Is it recommended? – undoubtedly. Harbert has provided a timely, provocative and insightful publication and I would argue a must read. The key message is found in the blurb on the back of the book – Baby Boomers “… will be lost to volunteering if they do not find what they are looking for”.

I see little evidence from the current literature on and about the baby boomer generation that they are being engaged in this debate.