discussion of ideology, especially given the massive literature that has developed about it – and the intersecting interest in participation. It is almost as if it has been seen as unproblematic for the ownership of ideology to be narrow and unconsidered.
This lack of attention to participatory approaches to ideology is all the more interesting and surprising given the rising political and policy interest in participation itself. The latter in turn seems to cross over traditional distinctions between left and right of centre politics. Thus, on the one hand, has emerged what has come to be called the Right-wing populism associated, for example, with Donald Trump in the US, Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage in the UK, and Viktor Orban in Hungary, although it has become an almost global expression of modern national(ist) politics. On the other hand, we have witnessed rising grassroots pressure for participation from identity, service user, community and other new social movements, pressing for more direct say in society.
While much more attention has been paid to Right-wing populism than grassroots activism, both challenge conventional politics and highlight their limitations and disconnect from the grassroots. However different these two expressions of pressure for participation may seem, both present themselves in terms of groups experiencing exclusion and disempowerment; Right-wing populism in terms of white male blue-collar workers whose political, social and economic power has been eroded, and new social movements in terms of groups identifying as marginalised, facing discrimination and often denied the full rights of citizenship – women, LGBTQ, Black and minority ethnic communities, and disabled people. In both cases people are demanding a greater say in politics and policy and this pressure is creating a commensurate interest in issues of participation.
This book should be seen as a product of such interest. It is offered as a companion volume to It’s Our Lives, which was concerned with supporting people’s involvement and empowerment by valuing their knowledge and experience (Beresford, 2003). This book is similarly concerned with valuing people’s knowledge and experience, but particularly in relation to the issue of ideology. Where the previous text was concerned with exploring participation in relation to research and knowledge production, here the focus is people’s participation in the production and operation of ideology.
Ideology may be a word that many of us don’t feel familiar or comfortable with, but the argument here is that it shapes all our lives. Just as earlier in It’s Our Lives, we found that people’s experiential knowledge seemed to be neglected and devalued in knowledge production, where much more value was attributed to so-called ‘expert’ knowledge, so it seems that people’s lived experience and the knowledge arising from it largely play little if any part in the development of ideology, which nonetheless can massively and intimately affect all of us.
This seems highly problematic, as it means that prevailing ideologies are likely to be outside people’s control, don’t necessarily bear much relationship to their rights, interests and concerns, and ultimately can be used in ways that may be damaging and destructive to them. Different ideological perspectives are often presented as though they reflect and are guided by our rights and needs, but how likely is that to be if we have little say in them? As we shall see, this can go for both ruling ideologies and those that seek to challenge them. Of course, it can’t simply be said that just because you have no say in an ideology it is likely to be bad for you. But what does seem a much more helpful starting point is that an ideology people do have a say in is more likely to be in line with their rights and needs.
The aim here is to develop a different way of thinking about ideology and ideological perspectives and our relationship with them. This starts from the premise that if the aim is to advance an ideological perspective which promotes an empowering society and reflects everyone’s rights and needs, then this is more likely to be achieved if it is done in a participatory way. This builds on my earlier hypothesis in relation to knowledge production. This stated that: ‘The greater the distance between direct experience and its interpretation, then the more likely resulting knowledge is to be inaccurate, unreliable and distorted’ (Beresford, 2003, p 4). This challenged the conventional assumption in positivist research that the opposite was true and that the greater the distance between direct experience and its interpretation, then the more reliable resulting knowledge is likely to be.
The proposition to be explored here is that:
The more people are involved in the production of ideology about how a society should be, then the less it is likely that ideology and the society in which it is located will be oppressive, as opposed to, the more that ideology is imposed on them about how society should be, the more oppressive it is likely to be.
First, though, we have to re-examine the focus of discourse on ideology, which as yet does not seem to have been directed at such issues. In this text, the initial aim is to find out more about conventional discussions of ideology.
The structure of the book
To address its set task, the book is divided into three parts. These focus in turn on ideology, participation and challenging dominant ideologies through participatory action. However, what unifies the book – the thread running through it – is the relationship between ideology and participation. It is a thread that barely seems to have been considered until now. Unless we do so though, how can we fully understand ideology or participation or indeed advance progressive versions of either?
To this end, we begin in Chapter 1 by exploring the conventional discussion of ideology, focusing on political ideology to find out more about its origins and history, as well as the meanings attached to it and key forms it has taken. We familiarise ourselves with the ‘expert’ discourse on the subject and look at the idea itself, how it has been shaped, its association with science and ‘expertise’. Finally, we address the history of ideology and encounter one that is essentially exclusionary rather than participatory.
In Chapter 2 we take the next step and focus on ideology’s relations with ‘us’ – the people on the receiving end. Here the story seems to be one of a widespread lack of both familiarity and ease with the idea. Starting with the individual we explore how ideology impacts on us personally. We consider the idea of people’s personal ideology, the forms it may take and what may shape it. We consider the ideological context of our individual experience, examining two extreme ideologies of the 20th century and the broader insights they offer as case studies.
Chapter 3 develops this discussion by asking if most of us play little part in shaping ideology what does. It does this by exploring the different forces and influences at work shaping our ideological preferences and how they are internalised. We look at the knowledge claims used to justify different ideological positions and how political ideologies serve as means as well as ends. Most important we focus on the ownership of ideology; where does it come from, what say do we have in it? We consider such questions also in relation to ideologies that have emerged to challenge ruling ideologies. Are they different, do we have more say in them? Are there exceptions to the rule?
In Part II of the book we come on to its main focus: reconnecting ideology and participation. We begin to look at a different approach to political ideologies, where the aim is to make possible our effective participation in them. Chapter 4 highlights that this represents a fundamental change in approach to ideology, one that begins with how we try to examine and discuss the concept. A central question is explored: is it possible for ideology to be liberatory unless it is participatory? We look at the insights for such participation to be found in the ‘new social movements’ that developed in the last quarter of the 20th century, including service user movements, and unpack participation considering its history, philosophy, models, contexts and meanings.
Chapter 5 focuses on the barriers that need to be addressed and overcome if such participation is to be inclusive and effective as a basis for a different approach to the development of ideology. The first of these issues to be addressed is power and inequalities of power, then we examine a range of routine exclusions and inequalities that can operate and how these can be challenged. The chapter explores a range of key requirements to ensure inclusive involvement, which include both support for the individual to be involved and improved access to previously excluding social institutions. In the first of two case studies, we see how disabled people got together to develop their own ideology, its key components