EMBRACING NEOLIBERALISM? A RECONSIDERATION OF THE RESTRUCTURING OF A NEW ZEALAND NONGOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION

Abstract

A study of the restructuring of a New Zealand non-governmental welfare agency concerned with the needs of children and their families shows how a prominent local non-governmental organization sought to reverse the detrimental effects that New Zealand’s adoption of neoliberal ideology, policy, and practice has had on the country’s voluntary sector. The research indicates that the attempt at restructuring has the potential to align the organization more closely with emerging local developments in neoliberalism and offers an analysis of what happened. The analysis presented here supports the view that neoliberalism is fragmentary, uncertain, and variable; a contextual rather than a unitary phenomenon. That the market-oriented ideology constitutes “a thing that acts in the world” paradoxically emerges stronger than before.