Voluntary and community organisations have moved to the centre of political debates, as the new UK government reduces the scope of the state and locates solutions in civil society. This new book explores the extensive growth and reshaping of the voluntary sector following sweeping changes to social and welfare policy over 30 years. It draws on contemporary social and organisational theory and debates to consider whether surviving in the voluntary sector now depends on realigning activities and compromising independent goals and values.
There are great expectations of voluntary action in contemporary Britain but limited in-depth insight into the level, distribution and understanding of what constitutes voluntary activity. Drawing on extensive survey data and written accounts of citizen engagement, this book charts change and continuity in voluntary activity since 1981. How voluntary action has been defined and measured is considered alongside individuals’ accounts of their participation and engagement in volunteering over their lifecourses. Addressing fundamental questions such as whether the public are cynical about or receptive to calls for greater voluntary action, the book considers whether respective government expectations of volunteering can really be fulfilled. Is Britain really a “shared society”, or a “big society”, and what is the scope for expansion of voluntary effort? This pioneering study combines rich, qualitative material from the Mass Observation Archive between 1981 and 2012, and data from many longitudinal and cross-sectional social surveys. Part of the Third Sector Research Series, this book is informed by research undertaken at the Third Sector Research Centre, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and Barrow Cadbury Trust.
This important book is the first edited collection to provide an up to date and comprehensive overview of the third sector’s role in public service delivery. Exploring areas such as social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value, the authors provide a platform for academic and policy debates on the topic. Drawing on research carried out at the ESRC funded Third Sector Research Centre, the book charts the historical development of the state-third sector relationship, and reviews the major debates and controversies accompanying recent shifts in that relationship. It is a valuable resource for social science academics and postgraduate students as well as policymakers and practitioners in the public and third sectors in fields such as criminal justice, health, housing and social care.
The Working Centre in the downtown core of Kitchener, Ontario, is a widely recognized and successful model for community development. Begun from scratch in 1982, it is now a vast network of practical supports for the unemployed, the underemployed, the temporarily employed, and the homeless, populations that collectively constitute up to 30 percent of the labour market both locally and across North America. Transition to Common Work is the essential text about The Working Centre—its beginnings thirty years ago, the lessons learned, and the myriad ways in which its strategies and innovations can be adapted by those who share its goals. The Working Centre focuses on creating access-to-tools projects rather than administrative layers of bureaucracy. This book highlights the core philosophy behind the centre’s decentralized but integrated structure, which has contributed to the creation of affordable services. Underlying this approach are common-sense innovations such as thinking about virtues rather than values, developing community tools with a social enterprise approach, and implementing a radically equal salary policy. For social workers, activists, bureaucrats, and engaged citizens in third-sector organizations (NGOs, charities, not-for-profits, co-operatives), this practical and inspiring book provides a method for moving beyond the doldrums of “poverty relief” into the exciting world of community building.
Over the last 20 years, the number of professional managers displaced from US corporate jobs has increased dramatically. This has coincided with the rapid expansion of employment in the US nonprofit sector; a sector that has a high proportion of managerial and professional workers among its employees. Workforce Transitions from the Profit to the Nonprofit Sector examines the career sequences of dislocated white-collar corporate managers who want to move to the nonprofit sector. It highlights the managers' motivations, the structural barriers which prevented them from making the transition, and the methods of penetrating the barriers. It uncovers the reasons why some corporate managers are able to make the transition and why others do not. Finally, it presents the methods of adaptation that were utilized in their new environments. This volume will be of interest to human resource managers in the profit and nonprofit sectors, sociologists, occupational researchers, and organizational psychologists.
Information and communication technologies (ICT) are major forces shaping our current age. ICT affects many areas of human existence and influences the both human wellbeing and human evil. The nonprofit sector is already heavily involved in technology both as a way to pursue its mission and as an influential factor in the evolution of the sector. This article examines how technology affects the sector and how the sector uses technology in its work. The article begins with a discussion of how the emerging information society will change the nonprofit sector. The sector that we know is grounded on our experience in the agrarian and industrial periods in the United States and Europe. We then explore how technology evolved in the sector. This is followed by an examination of technology and nonprofit organizational behavior. Technology changes the organizations that make use of its capacities. Next is a discussion of the types of technology that nonprofit organizations use. The final three sections deal with technology and social change, technology in nonprofit settings, and issues and trends. This article provides the reader with a current appreciation of the scholarly and professional literature on ICT in the nonprofit sector.
Across Europe the importance of reconciling paid work and family life is increasingly recognised by a range of diverse government regulations and organisational initiatives. At the same time, employing organisations and the nature of work are undergoing massive and rapid changes, in the context of global competition, efficiency drives, as well as social and economic transformations in emerging economies. Work, families and organisations in transition illustrates how workplace practices and policies impact on employees' experiences of work-life balance in contemporary shifting contexts. Based upon cross-national case studies of public and private sector workplaces carried out in Bulgaria, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands and the UK, this innovative book demonstrates the challenges that parents face as they seek to negotiate work and family boundaries. The case studies demonstrate that employed parents' needs and experiences depend on many layers of context - global, European, national, workplace and family. This book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students of organisational psychology, sociology, management and business studies, human resource management, social policy, as well as employers, managers, trade unions and policy makers.
Serving as an introduction to the UK's voluntary sector, this book builds on the foundations lain in an earlier book by Kendall and Dahrendorf. Using a comparative approach to place the UK voluntary sector in perspective, this book considers the scope, scale, structure, and impact of the voluntary sector's activities on society. Based on both qualitative and quantitative evidence, this informative book includes statistical mapping of the sector, as well as semi-structured interviews conducted with voluntary sector policy actors. A much-needed addition to the current literature, The Voluntary Sector provides a theoretical framework and in-depth analysis of an increasingly important area.
Using a biographical approach, this book:·[vbTab]integrates the perspectives of social policy, sociology, youth and transition research, and education and labour market research;·[vbTab]compares policy and practice in a variety of European national contexts;·[vbTab]explores the dilemmas of policies for the inclusion of young people;·[vbTab]suggests that a holistic Integrated Transition Policy, which puts young people's subjective experience at its centre, can provide an alternative to current policies and practice; This book is aimed at academics and students in social policy, sociology, education, economics and political science who are interested in policy analysis with regard to young people. The overview of recent trends also makes it relevant for practitioners and policy makers in the field.
