Community groups in context

In the past decade community groups have been portrayed as the solution to many social problems. Yet the role of ‘below the regulatory radar’ community action has received little research attention and thus is poorly understood in terms of both policy and practice.

Focusing on self-organised community activity, this book offers the first collection of papers developing theoretical and empirically grounded knowledge of the informal, unregistered, yet largest, part of the voluntary sector. The collection includes work from leading academics, activists, policy makers and practitioners offering a new and coherent understanding of community action ‘below the radar’.

The book is part of the Third Sector Research Series which is informed by research undertaken at the Third Sector Research Centre, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Barrow Cadbury Trust.

Lucy Mayblin is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Sheffield.

Andrew Ryder FRSA is Director of the Institute for Political and International Studies at Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary.

Angus McCabe is a Senior Research Fellow at the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham. He has a background in community development practice in urban and rural settings in the UK

Jenny Phillimore is Professor of Migration and Superdiversity at the University of Birmingham. Jenny is a fellow of the RSA and of the Academy of the Social Sciences with research interests in superdiversity and refugee integration.