"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

Sample Abstract

Title: Non-governmental actors and the political dimension: navigating the tensions in new governance spaces.

Session: Political dimensions

Abstract: The move from government to governance across the globe, as evidenced by the growth of partnership working, the transfer of public services to non-governmental providers and other policies to promote community participation means that third sector organisations are expected to play a greater part in policy processes. While many third sector actors welcome this opportunity, these new governance spaces also pose a number of dilemmas in relation to effectiveness, autonomy, voice and legitimacy.  Research has, for example, suggested that non-governmental players are marginalised in these new spaces.  It has also highlighted inherent tensions for non-governmental actors, between autonomy and incorporation (Craig et al., 2004), between confrontation and co-operation (Fung and Wright, 2003), between service delivery and advocacy roles and between conflicting accountabilities and sources of legitimacy (Taylor and Warburton, 2003).

Governmentality theory suggests that these new governance spaces are still inscribed with state agendas, making NGOs responsible for tackling disadvantaged, but circumscribing them with conditions that perpetuate state control.  However, it also allows for the possibility of resistance and for non-governmental actors to become ‘active subjects’ within these spaces.  Social movement theory, meanwhile, offers some insights into how this might be achieved, as new political opportunities offer the possibility for new resources, new allies and realignments of power. 

The authors of this paper have recently embarked on a two-year research project which will draw on these theories to explore the factors that enable non-governmental actors to become active subjects in these spaces.  Based in three different countries with different third sector traditions and different histories of state-third sector relationships, the research examines the political opportunities afforded in the new governance spaces at local level, the tensions that NGOs experience in these spaces, and the strategies they adopt to address these tensions.

The analysis will be developed with an international comparative perspective. The researchers will conduct four locality case studies, one each in Bulgaria and Nicaragua, two in the UK through which they will engage with and study 4-6 third sector organisations in each site through interviews and inquiry groups involving third sector and state actors. Through the inquiry groups we will discuss the application of the research themes in their settings in order to encourage the co-production of knowledge between researchers and researched both within national contexts and across the sites.

Crucial to the success of this study will be our ability to establish a common framework of meaning across the three countries.  The case studies will, therefore, be preceded by a conceptual and context mapping exercise.  This will explore how concepts of governance, autonomy, voice and legitimacy are understood in the different national contexts and establish what is know about the state of development of the third sector and relationships with the state. 

This paper will report on this first phase of the research: the results of the preliminary mapping exercise, the way in which the research themes map across the different contexts and the questions that this raises for the remainder of the research.  

References

Craig G., Taylor M. and Parkes T. (2004) ‘Protest or partnership? The voluntary and community sectors in the policy process’, Social Policy and Administration 38 (3) 221-239

Fung, A. and Wright, E. (2003) Deepening Democracy: innovations in empowered participatory governance, Politics and Society, 29, 2, pp.5-41

Taylor, M. and Warburton, D. (2003) Legitimacy and the role of UK third sector organisations in the democratic process, Voluntas, 14, 3 pp. 321-338