The election of a centre-right coalition government in the UK in 2010 has seen the advent of a programme of public service reform. Under the banner heading of the ‘Big Society’, the ostensible aim of this reform is to engage citizens and civil society groups locally in the development and delivery of those public services hitherto considered principally the domain of statutory bodies, such as locally-elected councils. This programme of reform will, it is argued, lead to more efficient and responsive public services, as well as a more public-spirited, politically engaged citizenry.

As a policy of decentralisation and civic engagement, the Big Society is highly contested, with critics arguing that, in reality, citizen empowerment is a smokescreen for what amounts to an unprecedented programme of cuts in public expenditure, with those worst effected by cuts, such as urban communities experiencing multiple deprivation, taking a proactive role in the implementation of cuts to the very services that they depend upon.

Noting that the ‘Big Society’ is in essence neither new nor unique to the UK, this paper will argue that the experience of public housing reform in the UK in the last 20 years – and, in particular, the policy of transferring local authority housing stock to not-for-profit, third sector, civil society groups (known collectively as registered social landlords) – provides us with an insight into what the Big Society looks like in reality. More specifically, the paper will address the related questions of a) what it is citizens in deprived communities need to know, or be able to do, in order to effectively participate in public service reform, and b) the environment in which such knowledge and skills are acquired by participating citizens, including particular obstacles that prevent or impede learning. In addressing the latter question, the paper will also consider the particular implications for those actors in a public service reform scenario who have an educative function, regardless of whether or not these actors consider themselves educators as such.

The paper will draw upon three key strands of data: first, a review of literature that embraces both learning for active citizenship and experiential learning; second, document analysis, with a specific focus on official policy documents relating to housing stock transfer; and, third, empirical data, arising from interviews with active citizens involved in housing stock transfers, and which has been subject to critical hermeneutic analysis. In relation to the research questions, the paper will highlight the contrast in views between policymakers and administrators, on the one hand, and active citizens, on the other. It will further analyse these contrasting views utilising a Freirean conceptual framework, and will conclude by suggesting that whether or not one sees the Big Society as representing a progressive step towards citizen empowerment or, alternatively, as an ideological smokescreen for a broader, neo-liberal, laissez-faire political agenda, depends upon the extent to which critical consciousness is developed amongst participating citizens. This, ultimately, is a matter of education, and not simply constitutional or administrative reform.

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