The ‘hollowing out’ of smaller third sector organisations?

Aiken, Mike; Harris, Margaret

doi:10.1332/204080517x15090106925654

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Situated on formerly derelict wasteland, this space had been handed over to a charitable organisation called Green Fingers 1 to provide volunteering opportunities to local people with a range of mental health issues. That such a site existed was surprising on two fronts: firstly, for reasons that have been explored in detail elsewhere, funding for third-sector organisations in the United Kingdom has become increasingly difficult to obtain in recent years (Aiken and Harris, 2017). Despite this, Green Fingers still managed to run weekly volunteering sessions led by a trained (and remunerated) co-ordinator.…”

Section: Introduction: Encounters In the Forest Gardenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organising food differently: Towards a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene

Beacham

2018

Organization

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In this article, I consider how organisations within 'Alternative' Food Networks (AFNs) might help us to enact a more-than-human ethic of care in the Anthropocene. Drawing on the diverse economies framework of J.K. Gibson-Graham (2006a; 2006b) as well as readings in the feminist ethics of care literature, I explore an ethnographic study of three Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes in the North West of England. Whilst there has been surprisingly little scholarly work linking food and the Anthropocene, much more has been made of the relationship between the food system and Anthropogenic processes of climate change. The orthodox responses to the problems that climate change may bring about are undergirded by Hobbesian visions and the perceived viability of instrumental, technocratic 'fixes' that are, for many reasons, worthy of critique. Broadening our viewpoint, and recognising that the Anthropocene and climate change require different responses, I argue that AFNs can provide a more hopeful perspective in how we might understand our existence within a more-than-human world. Rather than reading AFNs through analytical binaries as either reformist or radical entities merely confronting the ills of the food system, I develop an account that instead understands them as open-ended and tantalisingly different forms of organisation (Stock et al., 2015b) that can play a central role in fostering a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene.

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Section: Introduction: Encounters In the Forest Gardenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organising food differently: Towards a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene

Beacham

2018

Organization

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“…Subsequent recognition by national government of this vital gap-filling role performed by civil society in the first weeks of the crisis has been sparse, limited to schemes whereby established charities can apply by competition for small grants to help fund retrospectively some of their Covid-related services (NPC 2020). As in past examples of cooperation and complementarity between civil society and governmental services (Aiken and Harris 2017;Harris 2012) there has been a tendency to blur the boundaries in public discussion about contributions of the two sectors. There has been a generic focus on response and care.…”

Section: Common Patterns In Government/civil Societymentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiar Patterns and New Initiatives: UK Civil Society and Government Initial Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis

Harris

2021

Nonprofit Policy Forum

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This paper describes and analyses the response of UK civil society in the early months of the Covid-19 crisis, roughly the period March to July 2020. While focussing primarily on civil society actors, the paper includes an exploration of how civil society and the national government interacted with each other. It considers the extent to which responses to the Covid-19 crisis reflect familiar patterns of behaviour by civil society in the UK, and in the relationship between the government and ‘third sector’. The paper concludes by pointing to emergent issues for civil society as the UK looked towards recovery from the initial wave of crisis.

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“…Concerns gravitate towards two poles: a set of operational challenges and a deeper set of existential anxieties. First, research points to a range of difficulties gaining access to and maintaining positions within public service commissioning systems (Martikke and Moxham, 2010;Lloyds Bank Foundation for England and Wales, 2016;Aiken and Harris, 2017). The concern is whether commissioning and procurement processes prevent many third sector organisations from playing a full and meaningful part in public service delivery.…”

Section: Commissioning Public Services and The Third Sectormentioning

confidence: 99%

The third sector in a strategically selective landscape – the case of commissioning public services

Macmillan

Paine

2020

J. Soc. Pol.

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Abstract In the context of a mixed economy of welfare, public policy in the UK and elsewhere has long promoted third sector involvement in delivering public services. A growing research literature consistently highlights the challenges third sector organisations face engaging with a demanding public services commissioning environment, but it tends to lack a theoretical basis and can offer misleading accounts of third sector organisations as relatively passive and powerless in the face of wider forces. This article argues that third sector organisations actively operate within and seek to shape a commissioning context which advantages some strategies and some types of organisation over others. To provide stronger theoretical foundations for understanding public services commissioning and the third sector, the concept of ‘strategic selectivity’ (Hay, 2002) is applied to in-depth qualitative longitudinal data from third sector organisations delivering a range of public services. The article contributes new theoretical insights into the dynamic ways in which social policies and public services are organised. The analysis highlights how differently positioned organisations seek to read, navigate pathways through, and transform an uneven public services commissioning landscape.

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The ‘hollowing out’ of smaller third sector organisations?

Cited by 15 publications

References 28 publications

Organising food differently: Towards a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene

Organising food differently: Towards a more-than-human ethics of care for the Anthropocene

Familiar Patterns and New Initiatives: UK Civil Society and Government Initial Responses to the Covid-19 Crisis

The third sector in a strategically selective landscape – the case of commissioning public services

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