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Beyond new public management: Empowering community‐based organisations
Author(s) -
Mailloux Dominique,
Lacharité Carl
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.22435
Subject(s) - grassroots , public relations , community organization , community management , identity (music) , best practice , sociology , political science , management , physics , politics , acoustics , law , economics
Aims To describe how new public management practices, a global public service management trend, and a provincial community of practice, a group of people who learn from each other by interacting on an ongoing basis, affected a group of 240 community‐based organisations. Methods We conducted a holistic single case study of 240 grassroots, community‐based organisations called Family Resource Centres in the province of Québec, Canada. Data was collected from 36 research interviews, 6 years of participant observation, institutional documents and a research journal, and analysed qualitatively. Results New public management practices foster social injustice and endanger the integrity of the community‐based organisations, whereas the provincial community of practice empowered them to fight back deleterious new public management practices and reclaim their identity. Conclusion A provincial community of practice allowed 240 independent community‐based organisations in Québec, Canada to become empowered on a macro level while remaining faithful to their small scale community orientation. We hope this model can serve as an example of alternatives to current (new public) management practices.