This collection features recent articles from Voluntary Sector Review that are showing signs of having early impact in academia or beyond. Enjoy free access to this collection until 30 September.
Voluntary Sector Review's ones to watch collection
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This article explores the third sector’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on the experiences of disabled people in England and Scotland. It draws on semi-structured longitudinal interviews with 71 disabled people and 31 key informants, primarily from disabled people’s organisations. The third sector’s nimble response, supporting people in myriad innovative ways, emerged as a key finding. In contrast, statutory services were experienced by many as a barrier rather than an enabler, posing doubts about the state’s ability to respond to the crisis. Our findings raise questions about the role of the state and the third sector. We employ and critique Young’s typology of sector–state relations, concluding that the state needs to engage with the third sector as an equal and strategic partner, recognising its civil society credentials. Further, we raise questions about the appropriateness of using supply and demand models to understand the third sector’s societal role.
This article analyses challenges for civil society research in superdiverse areas and proposes ways to overcome them. Key components of previous studies are problematised, such as the lack of attention to demographic complexity, the focus on formally registered organisations at the expense of informal ‘below the radar’ initiatives, the over-reliance on analyses using administrative data and building on dichotomous categorisations of social capital. The article calls for scholars to develop methodologies and theory that enable research across the full range of civil society activity. We argue for a holistic approach to researching civil society through comparative and mixed-methods designs that facilitate research about the nature of civil society action, its forms, patterns and experiences. The concept of ‘superdiversity’ is useful to reflect evolving demographic complexity, given age, gender, nationality, religion and immigration status, and divergent experiences of rights and the labour market.
This article aims to present semi-structured interviewing as a pivotal tool used in research on the expressions of informal civil society, including the narratives of activists outside the third sector, but involved in grassroots initiatives. As quantitative research mostly focuses on formally registered organisations, it tends to legitimise and reproduce a narrow understanding of civil society. Semi-structured interviewing, on the other hand, is effective for gaining insight into hidden aspects of social life, problems that are not immediately perceptible. It enables the analysis of under-researched informal civil society and allows researchers to investigate the organisational challenges, practices and languages of unregistered initiatives. Nevertheless, research challenges include the ethical dilemmas related to power dynamics in research-participant relations, the positionality of the researcher and limited generalisability of the findings. Based on a literature review, including articles on civil society studies from five journals, I claim that interviewing opens the way to a more radical and broad understanding of civil society, which includes unregistered initiatives.
Third sector dementia support is characterised by wide variation and a heavy reliance on volunteer engagement. While there has been a growth in the reach and diversity of different schemes, their short-term funding results in a loss of networks, collaborations and local knowledge. This practice paper reflects on strengthening community-based dementia support and care via public and third sector partnerships. National and local data sources could help charities and commissioners begin to identify inequalities of provision.
Connections between religion and volunteering have been widely documented. Religion is a key motivating factor for volunteering in religious settings and elsewhere. Episodic volunteering is one of the fastest-growing forms of volunteering, but literature on episodic volunteering and religion is scarce. In this article, we analyse connections between religion and religiosity, and episodic volunteering. First, we identify types of episodic volunteers at religious events. Second, we use a set of three independent variables (declared religious denomination, importance of religion and spiritual motivation) to understand episodic volunteering participation. Third, we examine whether those who volunteer both episodically and regularly are more religious. Finally, we identify differences across religious affiliations. Using data from a cross-national survey, we apply different data segments in each area of our study. Our findings suggest that episodic volunteers are influenced by religion and religiosity, with especially strong connections among Protestants. We conclude with suggestions for future research.
