73 FOUR Mutual respect Many people think of democracy simply as a majoritarian mechanism that favours any decision backed by most of the people asked to give their views. But what actually constitutes an acceptable majority has often not been thought through. Sometimes a mere majority may be no more than another form of tyranny if the interests of those in a minority are permanently ignored. In other cases, the decision may be handed to those who received under 50% of the votes cast, because no other group managed to get a higher percentage. Ultimately
119 EIGHT Mutual support and solidarity The concept of mutual support is frequently linked to community care, helpfully opening up a wider understanding of care in the community. At the same time, Warren connects mutual support with Durkheim’s notion of ‘organic solidarity … a type of interdependence in interaction’ (Warren, 1963, p 196). The concepts of mutual support and solidarity are therefore grounded in a tradition of powerful ideas. These in turn connect strongly with community development and civil society. In the practice field, research
95 SIX Sexual offences and mutual consent Central to the morality of any culture are its norms and values on gender, especially on sexual affairs and personal relations.19 In most Western societies over the last half-century, there has emerged, for example, a wide acceptance of homosexual relations. There is also agreement on the absolute right of self-determination for women. Although there might be a discrepancy between values and reality, this constitutional equality is absent in other parts of the world. Nor has it always been the case in the West. In
267 eLeVeN conclusions: promoting mutual respect and empathy Andrew Millie In historical (and philosophical) terms, as noted in the Introduction, the search for ‘respect’ is nothing new. So why in the first decade of the twenty-first century is ‘respect’ seen to be such an important issue in the UK? As Geoffrey Pearson notes in Chapter Two, there is an assumed decline in standards of behaviour – that ‘young people no longer respect the law, no longer respect their parents and neighbours, they no longer show any obedience to authority’. But Pearson
Introduction Many governments of the Global North have downsized, dismantled and ‘colonised’ ( Spolander et al, 2016 ) social welfare programmes through neoliberal privatisation ( Harvey, 2007 ), which has moved from ‘explicit theory to default practise’ ( Schram, 2008: 307 ). Neoliberalism has strained existing institutions of social care and exacerbated social, economic, political and environmental problems ( Martinez and Garcia, 1998 ). Such constraints have catalysed community-based systems of mutual aid that challenge contemporary understandings of
Policy & Politics vol 29 no 1 15 Beyond social inclusion through employment: harnessing mutual aid as a complementary social inclusion policy Colin C. Williams and Jan Windebank Key words: social exclusion • social capital • mutual aid • active citizenship • poverty © The Policy Press, 2000 • ISSN 0305 5736 English This article argues that New Labour’s reliance on a ‘social inclusion through employment’ approach is problematic – especially when applied in lower income areas. This is due to the significant gap between actual employment rates and a full
Introduction Health and social care services in the Global North can be characterised as being organised around the idea of an individual patient or carer. Much research has been designed around this dichotomised model. However, particularly given the ageing population, it is increasingly the case that both members of a couple (two people living together as partners or as spouses) are living with serious conditions ( Radcliffe et al, 2013 ; Torge, 2014 ; Nimmon et al, 2018 ). We describe these as ‘caring couples’: people who live together, mutually
241© The Policy Press, 2013 • ISSN 0305 5736 Key words: health policy • devolution • public involvement Policy & Politics vol 41 no 2 • 241–58 (2013) • http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/030557312X655404 A mutual NHS? The emergence of distinctive public involvement policy in a devolved Scotland Ellen Stewart Academic research on health policy divergence across the United Kingdom since devolution has characterised Scotland’s approach as ‘professionalistic’ or ‘collaborative’. This article argues that more nuanced studies of particular policy areas are needed, and
key messages ‘Deep experiential knowledge’ (DEK) is produced through self-help/mutual aid group (MAG) practices. DEK is narrative-based, collectively-produced, polyvocal and develops over time. Measures of DEK that would benefit evidence-based practice can be advanced by analysing its genesis in MAGs. Acknowledging DEK paves the way for participatory approaches to healthcare research, governance and treatment. Introduction: experiential knowledge in the context of evidence-based practice Recent healthcare reform to increase participation
The COVID-19 crisis brought an upsurge of local and neighbourhood organizing in the UK. At the beginning of March, when COVID-19 cases started climbing and lockdown was looming, COVID-19 mutual aid groups started cropping up in different parts of the country. At the time of writing in November 2020, there are 4,260 such groups across the UK that are registered on the national COVID-19 Mutual Aid UK website ( 2020a ), covering both rural and urban areas. The groups are formed by neighbours coming together to help those self-isolating in their area due to COVID
