In contrast to the case studies considered in the previous two chapters, where forums were established in order to improve services, or were linked to new models of neighbourhood and community governance, the cases we consider here all had their origins in the voluntary sector and/or in social movements. Each focused on a particular category of public, differentiated from others in terms of presumed commonalities of interest or identity; that is, they required people to claim a particular social identity based on age, gender, sexuality or other characteristic. In this chapter we consider five case studies: two senior citizens’ forums, a women's centre, a youth forum and a lesbian and gay forum.

Our interest lies in what happens when groups whose roots lie in voluntary, political or community activity, and who claim independence from statutory bodies, are brought into dialogue with such bodies. The imperative to involve communities as part of shaping policy and delivering services, discussed in Chapter Two, creates a climate in which nominally autonomous or independent groups move closer to official bodies. However, in their interaction with such bodies, questions have been raised about the possibility of incorporation. We are concerned then, with how far the capacity of groups constituted around presumed commonalities of identity to act as ‘counter publics’, opening up new agendas, acting as advocates, challenging the status quo, developing new or sustaining alternative political discourses, comes to be limited or contained by their closer engagement with institutional and governmental power (Craig and Taylor, 2002; Newman et al, 2004; Newman, 2005b; see also Chapter Four of this volume). Our case studies in this chapter demonstrate different degrees of embeddedness in state institutions. Two of them – the senior citizens’ forums in each city – were established through close interaction between the statutory sector (local authorities, health authorities), the voluntary sector (Age Concern) and campaigning organisations (the National Pensioners Convention). Two had their origins in new social movements (the women's centre, the lesbian and gay forum) but were increasingly interacting with official bodies, and, to a greater or lesser degree, dependent on their financial support. The fifth – the youth forum – was, during the course of our research, confronting the constraints of closer engagement with official support and funding for the first time, a confrontation that produced high levels of conflict and that led to the eventual withdrawal of their engagement.