Spaces for empowered places or agents of displacement?
The contribution of the Third Sector in the increasing displacement
of the human services
Places and institutions are arenas where local impacts of continuous global restructuring are
manifested and experienced by individuals and communities. As restructuring occurs, institutions
in particular places are reshaped. The geographies of institutional reshaping in particular places can
provide insights into broader directions for political and social change.
This paper reports current research and provides maps of new theorised global geographies
and maps of new 'experienced' geographies of community and health services institutions. The new
geographies of global restructuring are explored for a macro-perspective. These macro-geographies
were deduced from an eclectic survey of theories and empirical studies. These were generally
derived from analysis of other production sectors and institutional types, particularly forprofit
organisations. The new micro-geographies of community and health services institutions were
constructed from a comparative synthesis of the experiences of institutional reshaping of government
(Commonwealth, state and local) and third sector organisations. The synthesis was generated from
51 case studies of institutional reshaping. The institutions were engaged in community and health
services as funders, purchasers, or providers in Western Australia during the period 1984 to 1997.
These organisations, already shaped by a pre-existing localism paradigm, were reshaped around new
paradigms based on economic rationalist and managerialist ideologies.
This paper has three parts: an exposition of the tensions in new global geographies, a
synthesis of the parameters of new community and health services' geographies, and their
juxtaposition. The primary focus is the contribution of the third sector as either spaces for
empowered places or as agents of displacement in new geographies.
New global geographies
The new geographies of the community and health services in Western Australia were
experienced within the broader context of globalisation and the restructuring of capitalism. Within
this restructuring, particular directions for change have been theorised and are being empirically
researched across a wide range of sectors and in many different places (for example, see the recent
compendium edited by Cox, 1997, or the earlier compendium edited by Henderson & Castells,
1987). However there remains little agreement on the forces for change and the directions of change.
Many concur that we stand at the end of an era, poised on the brink of 'new times', but there is less agreement on the anatomy of the new, or indeed on the substance of the 'something' which has propelled it into being.
(Goodwin, Duncan & Halford, 1993, p. 67)
In the theoretical and (sometimes) empirically-based arguments about the anatomy of the
new, three interlinked theses can be identified. The first major thesis of globalisation and
restructuring is that territorial disintegration occurred, resulting in a new territorial dynamic between
places and flows. The second thesis is that organisational disintegration occurred, resulting in a new
organisational dynamic between organisations-as-units and networks. The third thesis is that these
new territorial and vertical dynamics interacted with a new politics which both empowered and
disempowered groups and places, representing a new political dynamic between government and
governance. Each thesis requires further explanation and elaboration.
Territorial disintegration and a new territorial dynamic: Thesis One
Territorial disintegration - referred to as deterritorialisation by many writers - is defined in
economic terms by Storper (1997) as the reversal of territorialisation. Territorialisation was
considered by Storper as representing "specific interdependencies in economic life" (1997, p. 20)
that are territorially specific. Territorial disintegration therefore released activity from territorially
specific sites and allowed locational substitutability (Cox, 1997).
Territorial disintegration generated a new territorial dynamic between places and flows.
Castells (1989) named this dynamic as the experience of a movement from a space of places to a
space of flows. He further argued that transformations in the relationships of production, power, and
experience (that were part of restructuring) led to a substantial modification of social forms of space.
These social forms, and the social practices associated with them, were constructed around flows
rather than places. This space of flows was not conceived as placeless in form but it was placeless
in structural logic.
... the logic and dynamics of territorial development are increasingly placeless from the point of view of the dominant organisations and social interests.
(Henderson & Castells, 1987, p. 7)
Organisational disintegration and a new organisational dynamic: Thesis Two
Organisational disintegration - referred to as vertical disintegration in many cases - is defined
as the breaking up of vertically integrated single organisations into networks of flexible specialised
sub-contracting firms (Leborgne & Lipietz, 1988). The main organisational characteristics of this
disintegration were distinguished by Castells (1989) as concentration, flexibility, and
decentralisation. First, there was a concentration of decision-making processes in higher level
organisations or in the centres of organisations, making them the only non-substitutable
organisational components. Second, new systems and the relationships between units were
characterised by flexibility with organisational substitutability. Third, there was a shift from
centralised large organisations to decentralised networks.
There is a shift, in fact, away from the centrality of the organisational unit (including the state) to the network of information and decisions. In other words, flows, rather than organisations, become the units of work, decision and output accounting.
(Castells, 1989, p. 142)
Organisational disintegration generated a new organisational dynamic between organisations-as-units and networks. These decentralised networks involved variable forms and relations. Leborgne
and Lipietz (1988, p. 274) used the notion of vertical quasi-integration to describe the "grey area
between hierarchy and market" that existed in the new organisational logic of networks. This quasi-integration combined vertical disintegration with tasks sub-contracted between separate
organisations, with vertical integration of key tasks within the contractor. It also involved non-market relations between organisations, provisionally named "diagonal disintegration" by Leborgne
and Lipietz (1988, p. 274). This diagonal disintegration ranged from "oppressive vertical forms of
subcontracting to the most balanced (horizontal) forms of partnership" (Leborgne & Lipietz, 1988,
p. 274).
Disempowerment and a new politics: Thesis Three
The new politics, with which the new territorial and organisational dynamics engaged, arose
from "a complex triple displacement of powers upward, downward and, to some extent outward ...
" (Jessop cited in Peck & Tickle, 1994, p. 318). This displacement involved changes in structures
and processes, and changes in their context.
There has been a restructuring of the institutions and mechanisms through which local governance operates, as well as changes in the context of political struggles, projects and alliances.
(Goodwin and Painter, 1996, p. 635)
Castells (1998, p. 357-358) argued that the era of globalisation of the economy was also the
era of localisation of polity. He theorised that the globalisation of wealth and information existed
alongside the localisation of identity and legitimacy (Castells, 1998, p. 2). This localisation of polity
was apparent in many new movements which increasingly had pro-local and decentralised
orientations (Smith, 1987).
This transformation of power relations manifested in the crisis of the nation-state and the
crisis of democracy. The geometry of new power relationships were therefore a multilateralisation
of power institutions and a diffusion of authority (Castells, 1998, p. 346). Goodwin and Painter
(1996) described this as a transformation from government - as the nation-state and representative
democracy - to governance.
The new local governance involves more power being exercised by a very varied range of institutions which operate at a range of spatial levels.
(Goodwin and Painter, 1996, p. 636)
Low (1997) summarised the theories as proposing a reorganisation of the scale of governance
with the nation-state superseded by local, regional, and supra-national forms of governance. This
reorganisation had the potential to both empower and disempower groups and places. Rose and
Miller described this new problematics of government as the need to understand the "mobile
mechanisms of contemporary political power" (1992, p. 174). These mobile mechanisms involved
"multiple and delicate networks that connect the lives of individuals, groups, and organizations to
the aspirations of authorities" (Rose & Miller, 1992, p. 176).
Placeless powers and powerless places: A Synthesis
In combination these three theses on the new territorial, organisational and political dynamics
of global geographies generate a picture of the balance of power "tipping in favor of globalized
organizations, networks, practices, and flows", that is, from "territorialized institutions ... to
deterritorialized institutions such as intrafirm ... corporate hierarchies or ... markets that know no
bounds" (Storper, 1997, p. 19). The picture also includes Storper's (1997, p. 20) "territorially based
institutionally organized" systems competing for market share. These appear to be the theorised
present and future geographies: globalisation as placelessness and globalisation as competition
between territorialised formations.
The dominant tendency is toward a horizon of networked, ahistorical space of flows, aiming at imposing its logic over scattered, segmented places, increasingly unrelated to each other, less and less able to share cultural codes.
(Castells, 1996, p. 428)
Castells (1996, p. 477) argued that such a tendency would create placeless powers in a
network of flows that switch off "nonessential functions, subordinate social groups, and devalued
territories" and consequently create powerless places.
... because function and power in our societies are organized in the space of flows, the structural domination of its logic essentially alters the meaning and dynamic of places.
(Castells, 1996, p. 428)
The new ... dynamics, then, tends to be organised around the contradiction between placeless power and powerless place.
(Castells, 1987, p. 10)
While it is agreed that "globalization does not entrain some single, unidirectional,
sociospatial logic" (Cox, 1997, p. 16), the three dynamics - the territorial, the organisational, and the
political - would appear to interact and react as a new global dynamic between the experiences of
placeless powers and powerless places.
New community and health services geographies
Much of the current community and health services institutional infrastructure in Australia
was the product of earlier collectivist and localist visions. Subsequently, managerialist reforms
structurally realigned government to be the strategic state, with centralised strategic planning and
funding functions, and decentralised operative direct or funded provision functions. Economic
rationalist reforms reframed discourses establishing government as the enabling state, with
government purchasers and nongovernment provider units.
The pre-existing institutional geographies of the community and health services included
three sets of institutional players: government departments (Commonwealth and state), third sector
organisations, and local government organisations. The government departments were bureaucracies
organised around client, function, and generic-specialist tensions. They were all under review in the
mid-1980s. The reviews recommended regionalisation, a shift to third sector service provision, and
participatory structures to institutionalise the relationshaip between the third sector and government.
The third sector organisations were either long term large traditional providers or newly
emerged (or created) small local third sector organisations. There were three pre-existing shapes:
large institutions, large field service organisations, and small local community managed
organisations. Local government organisations are not considered in this paper. Their pre-existing
and changing geographies shared many themes with third sector organisations and state government
departments.
During the period 1984 to 1997 the pre-existing shapes were reshaped through structural
realignment and discourse reframings. Commonwealth and state government departments were
reshaped to purchasers and third sector organisations were (re)shaped to providers producing new
territorial, vertical, and governance geographies. These new geographies are summarised below. The
appendix includes detailed tables from the major study of 51 organisations which provided the
material for the discussions in this paper.
New territorial geographies
The new territorial geographies of community and health services institutions consisted of
centralised funder-purchasers and localised provider units.
There was a distinct localisation (but not necessarily a devolution) of government
departmental direct provision to localised government provider units. There was also a divestment
of provision to third sector providers which did (and did not) involve localisation, depending on the
nature of the third sector organisations. There was also a distinct delocalisation of government
departmental planning and funding functions, at least the strategic aspects of these functions. This
also occurred for the management of provision through deregionalisations.
There was considerable diversity in pre-existing institutional shape within the third sector,
and diversity in the change directions. Third sector organisations were reshaped (or newly shaped)
in their engagement with the multiple reform strategies of government departments and their own
reform strategies. The large institutions deinstitutionalised, the large field service organisations
restructured, and the small community managed organisations grew. New medium-sized
organisations formed at regional levels in the late 1980s and then declined, while many new small
organisations were created in the 1990s. Peak networks experienced growth, decline, restructure,
emergence, and re-creation. The themes in these changes involved realignments of provision,
government funded service management, and planning and fund seeking functions.
Similar to the government departments, large third sector organisations localised provision
in scattered service sites or through teams attached to areas. They also deregionalised funded service
management as well as planning and fund seeking functions through the creation of specialist
centralised positions. The medium-sized third sector organisations divested funded service
management to local third sector organisations, as they declined or became regional funded service
managers. As small organisations grew, some maintained localised funded service management and
provision by simply adding new services to their localised lateral organisational infrastructures. If
their growth occurred through extending their geographic area, provider units were localised to new
areas.
There was some delocalisation of planning and fund seeking functions. The decline of
medium-sized specialist regional planning and fund seeking third sector organisations contributed
to this, as did deregionalisation of planning and fund seeking in large third sector organisations. The
regionalisation and deregionalisation of these functions in large third sector organisations often
mirrored state government changes.
New vertical geographies
The new vertical geographies consisted of concentrated (but multi-centred) funders and
purchasers, and provider units operating within restricted devolution of decision-making.
The delocalisation of government departmental planning and funding functions did not result
in concentration as these two functions were split between central office directorates. The delocalised
management of provision also occupied separate central office directorates, but in lower tiers as line
directorates (not central directorates). This produced a three-way division within government
departments. In the reframing of the state as the enabling state, these realignments were reframed
as elements of funder-purchaser-provider models in government departments.
A three-way division also occurred in third sector organisations. Within individual third
sector organisations, there were operational provision units, strategic management units, and
planning and fund seeking units. While there were instances of both emerging hierarchies and
dismantled hierarchies in third sector organisations, the dominant arrangement that emerged was
lateral structures of add-on localised provision units. Third sector organisations were reframed within
the market discourses of government departments. The reframing encompassed recasting as provider
units. The realigned provision units of third sector organisations became provider units to be
contracted by government purchasers. Third sector peaks were also reframed as providers (of
organisational development services), communicators for government departments, or as interpreters
of government changes for third sector organisations.
New governance geographies
The new governance geographies involved dismantled (or devalued) participatory place-based and organisation-based structures (especially sub-state structures) and emerging opaque
placeless dialogue spaces. In the changes on the governance dimensions of organisations, there was
a general movement away from institutionalised structures for participation. Where such structures
remained, there were changes in memberships and changes in the value given to membership.
Regionalised structures for participation by nongovernment representatives in government planning and funding remained for the departments that worked within a participatory framework. In others, they were never created or were dismantled with deregionalisation. Alternatively, departments established new government-resourced provider peaks for small third sector organisations and maintained individualised relations with larger providers.
The nature of the governance dimension for each third sector organisation depended on its size and
pre-history. The small community managed third sector organisations faced many tensions in their
governance structures. The coordinators of these organisations tended to professionalise the
composition of committees. This involved a de-volunteering and re-volunteering of the committee
as founding community members were replaced. For the large third sector organisations, governance
structures remained centralised and concentrated with direct management of service units. The new
service units established in the 1990s had no local governance structures, with direct management
the used as the predominate model. The auspice of provider units was also irrelevant as new service
units were created for funded service management under variable auspice, including (in one case)
a state government department itself.
In the reframing of third sector planning and fund seeking around the governmental market
discourses, the emphasis shifted away from cross-organisation support. The membership of some
third sector organisation peaks also changed, with local government organisations and large third
sector organisations withdrawing from provider peaks. In the case of new peaks, membership was
for coordinators of third sector organisations - not for committee members.
Government-initiated and -supported meetings or groups for government department and provider organisation interaction occurred at different levels. At the local level, these were generally informal information sessions. At the regional level, they were more formalised as advisory forums, yet many local providers knew little about them. At the state level, new formal state level committees in some cases were deliberately not supported in response to the defunding of provider-preferred structures. In some instances, the activities of other longer term state level government committees or third sector peaks were considered to be futile.
The experience of new geographies
While the reshaped territorial, vertical, and governance dimensions provided a framework
for interactions, they were experienced through the relations in various systems. Three common
experiences were identified. These were the experience of a double movement, the experience of
multiple and diffuse centres, and the experience of changing networks. The first two refer to the
experiences of reshaped relations with government departments. The third refers to the experiences
of reshaped relations with others. As third sector and local government organisations often had
relationships with more than one government department, the complexity in the mixture of
experiences increased exponentially.
The double movement experience resembled centralisation of strategic decision making and
decentralisation of operative decision making for many third sector organisations. The experience
of centralisation occurred across many types of strategic decisions. Participants raised concerns
about needs identification, service specification, selection of providers, funding level calculation,
outcome identification and measurement, and renewal of funding. The experiences differed across
departments, programme areas, types of provider organisations, and in some instances geographic
areas.
Study participants from third sector organisation described the existence of multiple centres
in their experiences of systems. They perceived a vacuum (or gaps) at the centre of purchaser
organisations with decision making diffused between planning and funding directorates, department
staff at different levels and sites, and Ministers. They also now had relations with more local centres
in the form of government funding staff localised to regional or district offices. Thus, while there
was a shared experience of centralisation, it was not to a particular place.
The experience of multiple and diffuse 'centres' was matched by a realignment and reframing
of relations at the 'peripheries'. Each organisation had many possible organisational networks with
which to engage. Descriptions of reshaped local provider relations catalogued episodes of
withdrawal from relationships. However there was a contrast between the attitude of many that
organisations can't find common ground for action, and action by a few geared at creating groups.
These local provider groups were often issue-specific, arose from a sense of urgency, were flexible,
involved advocacy, and were time-limited. Formalised relations between provider organisations were
rare - instead 'peer', 'lead', or 'mentor' organisational relations emerged. In only two instances were
local provider networks formalised into federated coalitions. Thus, trends within the reshaping of
relations with other organisations involved new levels of individualism and separatism (especially
when engagement with government funding systems was the aim), and new types of collectivism.
A synthesis: Tensions in a new local dynamic
The experience of the new local dynamic in the community and health services was the
experience of tensions between two realities. In one reality, there were values and experiences based
on place and organisation as local identity, and empowerment through enfranchisement and
autonomy. In the other, there were experiences of engagement with placeless or place-free
organisations and diffuse forms of governance. All community and health services practitioners
(whether engaged in provision, management, funding or planning) experienced these tensions. In
combination they created a picture of increasingly fragmented powerless places occupied by
providers and disjoint funder-purchaser spaces wielding seemingly placeless powers.
Implications from new geographies
We now have two sets of geographies: micro-geographies of experiences of community and
health restructuring in one place at one time, and macro-geographies of global restructuring.
Shared tensions
The new global dynamic and the new local dynamic share a tension between representations of the underlying concepts of territory, organisation, and politics as both structures and processes.
Place, organisation-as-unit, and government are structural representations of the concepts of territory,
organisation, and politics. Flows, networks and governance are process representations of the
concepts of territory, organisation, and politics. In his exploration of post modern welfare, Leonard
(1997, p. 86) called for a distinction between organisation as structure and organisation as process.
Here his conceptual distinction is extended to territory and politics.
The representation of the concepts of territory, organisation, and politics as both structures
and processes also relates to their representation as realist and relativist concepts. In questioning the
logic of realism in the dynamics of globalisation, Luke (1994, p. 621) theorised the coexistence of
"concrete realities of place" and a "tangible imagery of flow". An extension of his ideas to the three
dynamics - the territorial, the vertical, and the political - allows the imagination of the coexistence
of two worlds of experience. They are a structural and realist world (of places, organisations, and
government) and a process and relativist world (of flows, networks, and governance). One world
does not displace or totally destroy the other, rather they are experienced together as tensions.
Table 1. Tensions in the new global and local dynamics of restructuring
| Concept | Structural representation | Process representation | Change representation |
| Territory | Place | Flow | Territorial (dis)integration |
| Organisation | Unit | Network | Vertical (dis)integration |
| Politics | Government | Governance | (Dis)empowerment |
Different or shared futures
The character of global and local developments could be locked into binary histories of a
change from one stable world to another stable world (see Goodwin & Painter, 1996, for arguments
against the formation of a single post-Fordist mode; and Hood, 1995, for a critique of the global and
mono-paradigmatic nature of change in the specific case of public sector change). However, the
character of global and local developments could be opened to the possibility of multiple futures that
"recognise the constitutive role that social and political struggles are playing in determining the
shape of the future" (Goodwin & Painter, 1996, p. 642).
Are the futures of the community and health services and of third sector organisations to be
those theorised for other production sectors: futures of globalisation as placelessness and of
globalisation as competition between territorialised formations? Are there alternatives? Can place,
organisation, and government have new meanings alongside (and interwoven with) flow, network,
and governance in the community and health services, and in third sector organisations and their
relations?
While the changes undoubtedly disempower and disintegrate, they open up new possibilities
and new forms of action. What is required in the community and health services and the third sector
are readings inchoate of projects of territorial and vertical integration and empowerment. These
should not be thought of as projects to glorify old structural constructs and demonise new process
constructs (or the reverse). Neither should they be searches for a place, organisation, and government
fix nor a flow, network, and governance fix. They should be explorations to enable understandings
of the tensions and action within the tensions.
In the readings of the present and the future geographies, the role of third sector organisations
must come into focus. The new geographies of institutional shape raise concerns for the third sector
and individual third sector organisations. There are sets of values that are enhanced or impeded by
institutional shape. Given the values inherent in the positioning of third sector organisations as
institutions of civil society rather than as nonprofit firms (Lyons, 1996), the powerless places and
placeless powers of the new geographies should be of concern.
Of equal concern should be the part played by third sector organisations as spaces for
empowered places or as agents of displacement and disempowerment. Individual decisions to
reshape organisations through internal changes and through changing external relations cause further
(dis)integration and (dis)empowerment. Cumulative decisions (both individually and collectively)
can have major impacts on the (dis)integrations and (dis)empowerments in new geographies. As
DiMaggio (1983) pointed out, "the most enduring impact ... may be not direct effects upon
individual organizations but influences on the structure of organizational fields" (Wise, 1990, p.
143).
There were many instances of third sector organisations acting as active and passive agents of displacement in the empirical study. There were some instances of active creation of spaces for empowered places within third sector organisations. Such contextualised mappings of new geographies should provided opportunities for reflections - and should act as catalysts - on the contributions of the third sector to social and political change.
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Appendix
These tables are from:
Earles, W. (1999). Powerless places and placeless powers: The (re)shaping of human services
institutions. Unpublished PhD Thesis. The University of Western Australia: Perth, Australia.
They are reproduced here to provide more detailed background information to the discussions. They
were synthesised from a study of 51 organisations: 4 government departments, 36 third sector
organisations, 5 third sector peak organisations, 4 local government organisations, and 2 voluntary
groupings of local government organisations.
Table I. Themes in the reshaping of government departments to purchasers
| Realignment (Changes in structure) | Reframing (Changes in discourse) |
| Realignment of operational provision:
Localisation of direct provision
Deregionalisation of management of direct
service provision
Increased funded third party provision
Realignment of planning and funding:
Consolidation of management in head
office directorates
Localisation of administration and coordination |
Reframing of operational provision and planning and funding:
Creation of funder-purchaser-provider
models
Re-examination of direct provision |
Table II. Seven composite scenarios of pre-existing shapes and change directions as third
sector organisations reshaped to providers
| Scenario | Pre-existing shape | Major change direction |
| 1 | Small community managed organisations | Growth |
| 2 | Large institutions | Deinstitutionalisation |
| 3 | Large field service organisations | Restructure |
| 4 | Medium-sized organisations | Decline |
| 5 | Small organisations and new services | Creation in the 1990s |
| 6 | Variable | No change |
| 7 | Networks | Growth, decline, restructure, emergence, and re-creation |
Table III. Themes in the reshaping of third sector organisations to providers
| Realignment (changes in structure) | Reframing (changes in discourse) |
| Realignment of provision and funded
service management:
Small Development of management unit and service units as lateral add-ons or developing hierarchy
Large Development of management division and consolidated service teams or scattered services
Localised service delivery
Delocalised and deregionalised service
management
Dismantled hierarchies
Medium (peaks) Divested service management to local or regional service managers, or role change to regional service manager
Realignment of planning and fund seeking:
Small Creation of coordinator position
Large Creation of specialist planning and fund
seeking positions, regionalised then
deregionalised or delocalised
Medium (peaks) Demise of regional planning and fund seeking specialist organisations |
Reframing of provision and funded service
management, and planning and fund
seeking:
Provider units: as contracted providers for government,
with auspice irrelevant, and as business
arms selling to all
A new regionalism: head contractees, large regional auspice
organisations, "big sister" mentors, and
specialist associations for planning and
fund seeking
A new separatism: between advocacy and funded service
management, and between own provision
and funded
Recreated third sector organisations peaks: specialist funded service managers, or
communication networks as inteerpreters
of or for government
Reframing of provision and funded service
managment and planning and fund
seeking:
Business units: as competitive contracted providers
A new regionalism: flexible coalitions; resource-sharing; and
fee for service
Recreated voluntary groupings: regional consultants |
Table IV. Themes in the reshaping of local government organisations to providers
Increasingly arms-length provision
Divestment of auspiced provision
Creation of a service provision management
level
Realignment of planning and fund seeking:
Deregionalisation of planning and fund seeking
Consolidation of planning and fund seeking at management level within directorates of individual organisations
Business units:
as competitive contracted providers
A new regionalism:
flexible coalitions; resource-sharing; and fee for
service
Recreated voluntary groupings:
regional consultants