Canadian Non-profit Sector : Neoliberalism and the Assault on Community

Neoliberal restructuring has left individuals and families scrambling for survival and increasingly reliant on the under-funded and over-regulated non-profit sector to patch over the steadily growing fissures in our society. The book examines the creativity and resilience of nonprofits in maintaining and expanding their services. This book also delves into the vital role of non-profits in advocacy for human rights, anti-racism, Indigenous claims, and improved health and social services.

The decades-long turn towards marketized solutions to social needs has created the conditions under which privatized modes of service delivery have become the norm. The extraordinary rise of the non-profit sector is an under-analyzed consequence of neoliberal restructuring in Canada. In this timely corrective, Ted Richmond and John Shields analyze the place of the non-profit sector in neoliberal times in Canada. The authors take a critical political economy approach, providing a vital analysis of the significance of the non-profit sector, and bring clarity to its dimensions and roles in society. The book pays particular attention to the provision of social, human and health services in Canada’s changing welfare state system.