The Power of the Stranger: Structures and Dynamics in Social Intervention - A Theoretical Framework

The decline of the welfare state in Western Europe has led to an increasing role both for citizen-led initiatives and for philanthropy in easing, solving or preventing social problems. Care and everyday help is being provided by strangers – people driven by enthusiasm and commitment but unfamiliar with the pitfalls of social intervention.

Utilizing research on social intervention over the past twenty-five years, this book presents a new theoretical framework for a number of basic principles ...