Neoliberal drivers in hybrid civil society organisations: Critical readings of civicness and social entrepreneurism

Civil society organisations (CSOs) and social entrepreneurship take up a significant position in a welfare system in transformation. The positioning and context for civic society organisations has changed quite profoundly, due to neoliberal welfare policies and steering regimes. This chapter focuses on how neoliberal drivers and practices in hybrid civil society organisations influence and transform social work in civil society. It identifies two themes, which reflect significant neoliberal organising principles - namely the human rights subject versus the entrepreneurial labour market subject, and the commodification and performativity of civil services and human growth. Civic organisations and civil society are vehicles for active citizenship, activism in social movements and participatory democracy. Many CSOs find themselves in processes of transformation, in which hybridity and social entrepreneurism are significant features. Commodification and marketisation are neoliberal practices and pave the way for profound changes and transformations of social work and civil activities.