Dave Clements is a writer on social policy and has worked for 12 years in local government, predominantly social care. He is co-editor of The Future of Community: Reports of a Death Greatly Exagerrated (Pluto, 2008), and contributes to a variety of publications, in particular online magazine Spiked, the Guardian’s Joe Public blog, and Culture Wars, the Institute of Ideas’ online review website. He is convenor of the Insitute of Ideas’ Social Policy Forum and a member of the Battle of Ideas organising committee.