Beveridge and voluntary action in Britain and the wider British world

In assessing the impact of William Beveridge's Voluntary action over the last sixty years, this book provides a reminder that the terms 'voluntary action' and 'voluntary sector' are both fluid and contestable. The book demonstrates that the influences of Beveridge and voluntary action now extend not only beyond the period of the original publication of his report but also outside Britain to the wider 'British world'. It places Beveridge in the world in which he wrote Voluntary action as well as exploring the ideas, philosophies and experiences that influenced his intellectual development up to, and during, the 1940s. Beveridge's background and motivations behind the themes contained in Voluntary action are explored in various contexts. The book also focusses on specific areas of voluntary action with special relevance today. It presents surveys of different national situations, focussing on the influence of voluntary action in Britain, New Zealand, Australia and Canada in the aftermath of the publication of Beveridge's report. The situation that Beveridge set out to describe and analyse in 1948 has changed almost beyond recognition: the landscape in which voluntary action operates in the twenty-first century is now very different across all the countries surveyed in the book. Beveridge himself would probably have found it difficult to come to terms with some of these social changes and the challenges they have thrown up.