Background

Many Western states have sought in recent years to harness the flexibility and energies of voluntary agencies and charitable bodies.  One reform across the nations of the UK has been heightened emphasis on delivery of social care and health by agencies that are neither state, market nor household.  Indeed, their contribution has become a key strand of the drive to improve public services.  

A growing and rather diverse body of research evidence now exists around recent and current shifts in the mixed economy of welfare. Significant and emerging strands of research focus upon: the geographic unevenness of voluntary sector activity; microsociological community studies; institutional change and challenges of governance; individual behaviour and implications for citizenship, and policy evaluation. Methodological approaches encompass large scale mapping and measuring exercises; organisational case studies; consultation with ‘experts’ and stakeholders; and action research projects based on cooperation between researchers and practitioners, with opportunities for VCOs to define the problem and shape the agenda.

Within the academy, as in the world of policy, no single term is used to capture that part of the economy beyond the public and private sectors. For the sake of brevity we have adopted the inclusive ‘voluntary and community sector (including social enterprises)’ commonly abbreviated to VCS. State agencies in the UK currently favour the ‘Third Sector’ while ‘social economy’ and ‘civil society’ are also in use. The confusion over nomenclature reflects the diversity of traditions and claims to expertise.

The seminars will provide facilitated, supportive occasions where people from various disciplines, domains and communities work together to acknowledge and discuss differences. It is not expected that an all encompassing new theory of VCS participation in welfare will result. On the contrary we anticipate that by animating creative and lively engagement the seminar series will bring together distinct perspectives and facilitate dialogue and new interactions across the boundaries.

Objectives

• Foster the exchange of information and ideas by bringing together academic researchers from different disciplines who have made contributions around the theme of VCS public service delivery;
• Facilitate dialogue between academic researchers, the VCS and the public sector;
• Contribute to capacity building within the research community (both academic and VCS based);
• Advance empirically grounded, theoretically informed ways of articulating and representing ‘value’ and ‘diversity’ in the mixed economy of welfare 

For more information about the seminar series please visit ESRC Society Today (link opens in a new window)

This seminar series builds on an ESRC ‘Impact’ award Delivering public services in the mixed economy of welfare completed in summer 2008. The Impact project was led by Irene Hardill with Sue Baines and Rob Wilson. You can read more about this project and download documents in the Impact Project section of this website..