ABSTRACT

Community organising is subject to several interpretations, and community practises have spread worldwide over the last three decades. This paper understands community organising as a distinct methodology adopted by very different actors under very different objectives and uses it as a critical concept to analyse the role of the voluntary sector in social services. Through an account of the social service of Geneva, Switzerland focusing on community organising between 2002 and 2017, I offer a defence against the managerialist justification relied upon by the city’s municipal council when it shut down the unit. The argument is premised on an appeal to a liberally conceived right to equality of opportunity for freedom of association. It supports an orthodox view of community organising as a bottom-up way of working for certain social services of public administrations, which justifies an exceptional and circumstantiated deviation from public management core principles.

摘要

社区组织受到多种解释，而社区实践在过去的三十年中已遍及全球。本文将社区组织理解为不同的参与者在不同的目标下采用的独特方法，并将其作为分析自愿性部门在社会服务中的作用的重要概念。通过对瑞士日内瓦的社会服务的关注，侧重于2002年至2017年之间的社区组织，我为该市市政委员会关闭该单位时依赖的管理主义理由提供了辩护。该论点的前提是要诉诸于自由构想的享有结社自由的机会均等权。