"The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers for Research"
Universitat de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
July 9-12, 2008
ISTR Eighth International Conference
2nd
EMES-ISTR European
Conference in partnership with CINEFOGO
Conference Report
ISTR’s 8th International Conference was unique as the Society joined with the EMES European Research Network to hold the 2nd European Conference at the same time. For the second time after the first joint European conference in Paris in 2005, a partnership was created to allow special emphasis on European debates and contributions related to social enterprises and the Third Sector while placing them in a worldwide context. In addition, the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence cooperated through its research program on civil society and new forms of governance in Europe. These collaborations and networks brought a much wider group of delegates from the continent to explore this year’s conference theme, “The Third Sector and Sustainable Social Change: New Frontiers for Research.”
The Centro de Investigación de Economía y Sociedad (CIES) at the Universitat de Barcelona served as our local host and provided the venue for the largest gathering in the Society’s history with 601 delegates from 61 countries attending. A new members reception was held on Wednesday to provide an opportunity for the ISTR board of directors to welcome the Society’s newest members. With more than 200 new members attending the conference, this was an excellent opportunity to welcome them to the Society.
The Conference Opening and Keynote speech on Wednesday evening was followed by a gala reception at the Princesa Sofia Hotel with outstanding Spanish tapas and delicious local cuisine. The hotel provided a wonderful venue for meeting old friends and making new ones.
A second cultural reception took place on Friday at the Edific Històric de la Universitat de Barcelona in the Paraninf Hall. A musical evening with Miguel Javaloy on guitar and Maria Teresa Garrigosa Massana singing was an exceptional program of Spanish music. The recital was followed by a cava toast in the magnificent historic building and gardens.
Professional Development Workshops
The conference began with a series of workshops that explored a range of topics including Bridging Research and Policy, The Third Sector in Spain, Civic Engagement in the Mediterranean, The State of Philanthropy in Africa, Theoretical Dialogues, PhD Perspectives: Social Entrepreneurship Research, and Harnessing Social Enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
The State of Philanthropy in Africa session by TrustAfrica, a professional methodological workshop, was organized as part of a larger project to cultivate and nurture interest in philanthropy both from a theoretical perspective and from a practitioner’s viewpoint. It also sought to introduce an African presence and perspectives at the global level on matters of philanthropy. Further, the aim was to bring together researchers from Africa and expose them to dominant frameworks in the study of philanthropy.
The following thematic areas were discussed at the workshop:
Theoretical and philosophical underpinnings of Philanthropy in Africa;
1. Philanthropy and religion in Africa
2. Philanthropy and culture in Africa
3. Institutional forms of philanthropy in Africa, with a particular focus on North, South and West Africa
4. Philanthropy and development in Africa, with a particular lens on the relationship between the state and organized philanthropy
5. Philanthropy and the Diaspora; with a particular focus on Zimbabweans, Somalis, etc
6. Civil society legislation in many African countries
The workshop took advantage of the presence of international scholars and practitioners. For example, two of the guest speakers at the workshop were Professor Kathleen McCarthy from the Center for Philanthropy at the City University of New York and Dr. Gerry Salole from the European Foundation Centre. Prof. McCarthy presented on methodological challenges facing the study of philanthropy globally, while Dr. Salole looked at the global dimensions of philanthropy and implications for African philanthropy.
In addition to presentations, this meeting presented a moment in which researchers and scholars from across the continent and beyond could form a network of actors in philanthropy. Particularly interesting was the desire by scholars from Central and West Africa for information on philanthropy. There is a big gap in terms of the knowledge base on philanthropy between Central and West, and the other parts of the continent. The workshop served as a platform for partnerships and collaborations between researchers and actors from the different regions. Together with other institutions in Africa, TrustAfrica will follow this up by organizing an African ISTR regional meeting in 2009.
The workshop titled “PhD Perspectives: Social Entrepreneurship Research” was organized by the University Network for Social Entrepreneurship with the goal of analyzing the state of the academic field of social entrepreneurship and its relevance as a valuable field of study. The workshop opened with a video presentation featuring Bill Drayton and a presentation mapping out the current academic field of social entrepreneurship after which participants discussed the particular challenges faced in a less established research domain. They also had an opportunity to share their current research initiatives. The workshop challenged participants to think about their role in the larger movement of social entrepreneurship and to look at their research through a practitioner lens in order to gauge their own personal potential for impact at a campus, national, and global level.
Plenary Sessions
The opening plenary featured the keynote address by Professor Victor Pérez-Díaz, Professor of Sociology at Complutense University in Madrid and Founding Director of Analistas Socio-Políticos, ASP Research Center in Madrid. Dr. Pérez-Díaz’s comments addressed “The Voices of Civil Societies.” Professor Adalbert Evers, of Justus Liebig Universität in Germany and a member of the EMES European Research Network, served as the respondent.
Professor Pérez-Díaz explored themes of civil society, markets and democratic politics. Professor Evers reflected on uncivility and points of reference to blind spots in Third Sector research. The full papers and video can be found at http://www.istr.org/conferences/barcelona/index.htm
The conference’s second plenary, “Global Civil Society and Democratic Cultures,” was moderated by Professor Thomas P. Boje of CINEFOGO and Roskilde University in Denmark. The session included panelists Professor Klaus Eder, Humbolt Universität, Berlin; Professor Jude Howell, Centre for Civil Society, London School of Economics; and Professor Neera Chandhoke, University of New Dehli. This session addressed the role of global civil society institutions from various perspectives. The full session on video may be viewed at http://www.istr.org/conferences/barcelona/index.htm
On the final day of the conference, the plenary session on “Theorizing the Global Third Sector: Does North/South Make Sense?”moderated by Roseanne Mirabella of Seton Hall University (USA) used video technology to bring one speaker from Boston. Professor Adil Najam of the Pardde Center for the Study of the Longer-Term Future at Boston University shared his remarks via video as he was unable to secure a visa to travel. Professor Alnoor Ebrahim of Harvard Business School was the second plenary speaker. The session examined ideas about Third Sector theory including whether the theories of the global Third Sector are really global? This session can be found on video at http://www.istr.org/conferences/barcelona/index.htm
Conference participants also had the opportunity to hear remarks and ask questions from guest speaker, Michael Edwards, Director of Governance and Civil Society of the Ford Foundation and author of Just Another Emperor? The Myths and Realities of Philanthropcapitalism. The focus of his remarks was the topic of “Strengthening Civil Society: What has the Ford Foundation Learned?”
2008 Young Scholar Dissertation Award
ISTR awarded the second Young Scholar Dissertation Award in Barcelona to Vanessa Timmer, PhD (Canada). The award of US $1,000 is presented biennially for an outstanding dissertation that contributes to the field of comparative study of civil society organizations, nonprofit organizations, philanthropy, voluntarism and related issues. In addition, two distinguished research awards were presented to Sharon Eng, PhD (Australia) and Shawn Flanigan, PhD (USA). More information regarding the dissertations can be found on page 8.
International Fellowship Award
The Rockefeller Archive Center and ISTR awarded the first International Research Fellowship to Marwa El Daly. The purpose of the award is to support scholarly research in the field of nonprofit and philanthropic studies throughout the world. The fellowship is awarded to a scholar from outside the U.S. and Canada to conduct research at the Rockefeller Archive Center and attend the International Conference of ISTR.
Marwa El Daly is the lead researcher of the first philanthropy national study in Egypt. She holds a Masters Degree from the American University in Cairo and is currently a PhD student at Humboldt University in Berlin. Her thesis is on philanthropy, waqf (traditional endowed structure) and community foundations. Her research proposal is on exploring models of Community Foundations (governance, endowment buildings, investment, grant-making, legal framework) in the Western context to provide learning and possible adaptation to the Arab World with a focus on Egypt. More information regarding the Fellowship can be found on page 9.
Paper, Panel and Poster Sessions
The program included 125 paper and panel sessions. Papers were organized into sessions by theme and a list of sessions by theme track was included in the program. Thirteen posters were displayed during the conference. The conference abstracts can be found on the ISTR website http://www.istr.org/conferences/barcelona/cd/index.html and a CD Rom was distributed to all of the participants. Many of the papers presented in Barcelona will be reviewed for Volume 6 of the ISTR Conference Working Paper Series and for the EMES Selected Conference Paper Series. We also anticipate that some papers will be published in Voluntas.
Networking
Authors of recently published books were invited to sign and sell their books on Friday afternoon. This was a wonderful opportunity for delegates to showcase their publications and was very well attended. It was also a time for the poster authors to have conference participants ask questions about their research in progress. The Exhibition Hall was most successful with nearly one dozen exhibitors – both nonprofit organizations and publishers – sharing their research materials from around the world.
Conference Press Coverage
The Spanish press covered the conference in print, radio and television. The Radio Nacional de España (Spanish Public Radio) interviewed Jacqueline Butcher, ISTR President, on July 12th about the conference for their prime time news which has an audience of 1.5 million listeners. TVE (Spanish Public TV) interviewed both Jacqueline Butcher and Michaela Hertel, Director of the Fundación Bertelsmann. El Punt, a Spanish Daily newspaper, interviewed Isabel Vidal, Conference Co-Chair and our host at the University. In addition, there were a number of articles published in journals and on-line. Our thanks to Fundación Bertelsmann which arranged for all of this excellent coverage about the sector.
Conference Evaluation
The breadth of topics and research presented, the focus on emerging trends, and the opportunity for networking received by far the most comments in the evaluations. The broad spectrum of both junior and senior researchers in attendance was clearly a highlight for many delegates. One of the nicest comments was, “Excellent job – this was a stimulating and fantastic conference...thank you!”
Those completing the evaluation also shared numerous concerns ranging from problems at the conference venue, language issues, timing of sessions, need for environmentally friendly catering and name tags, quality of the presentations, etc. Suggestion was also made to share full papers prior to the conference. The Conference Academic Committee will review the evaluations in depth to make sure that all of the issues are addressed, especially in terms of logistics, in order to make the 2010 conference a rewarding experience.
Conference Support
The conference would not have been possible without the support from generous funders including the CINEFOGO Network of Excellence and the following:
Foundation Partner: Fundación Bertelsmann
Hosts: Centro de Investigación de Economía y Sociedad (CIES) and Universitat de Barcelona
Supporters:
• AIM Alliance (Arizona State University, Indiana
University, and Grand Valley State University)
• Caja Madrid Obra Social
• Charles Stewart Mott Foundation
• Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation offices for Brazil, China, Eastern
Africa, India, Mexico and Central America,
Russian Federation, and Southern Africa
• Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
• Fundación Luis Vives
• W.K. Kellogg Foundation
• Milega SL
• Observatori del Tercer Sector, Barcelona
• Springer - Verlag
• Stifelsen Riksbankens Jubileumsfond
• United Nations Development Programme
(Europe and the CIS, Bratislava Regional Centre).
We thank our Barcelona hosts for their special efforts and the exceptional support from the on-site team from Observatori del Tercer Sector, Barcelona with whom the logistics were managed. We also thank the wonderful community of colleagues celebrating this dynamic academic and social experience. ISTR now looks ahead to the 9th International Conference where we hope again to have high quality research papers from a truly international range of contributors.