On the OPM blog, associate Fellow Linda Jackson shares some thoughts on why it might be hasty to say that the Big Society has failed.  Perhaps we need to distinguish between the Big Society as philosophy and the Big Society as policy:

In the end, it matters less what words we use – more important is what councils and VCS organisations are doing out there on the ground. The Big Society phrase itself has become highly politicised, but as our research found, the wider terrain of individuals and communities doing more for themselves is one being mapped out by councils of all political hues.

Perhaps a quiet retreat from the re-branding of existing civic activity will leave critics with one less means of beating up the Coalition. This will also emancipate the media, think tanks and researchers (like those at OPM) to identify positive examples of ‘small b’ big society activity and, more importantly, work out what has made these examples a success.

You can read more here.