In an important new paper, Ursula Murray, from Birkbeck University of London, addresses many of the key issues of our ‘Inquiry into the Future of Voluntary Services’. Entitled ‘To what extent is the voluntary sector colonised by neo-liberal thinking?’, the paper examines the involvement of the voluntary sector in the dismantling of the welfare state, the largely silent response of the mainstream sector ‘leadership’ towards these changes, and the growing acceptance of voluntary agencies to act as sub-contractors to global corporations. Lastly she revisits ideas about ‘public-ness’ as a basis for re-thinking the proper role of the voluntary sector in 21st Century Britain. You can download the paper as a PDF here