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Dr. Rob Macmillan Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham

Understanding change in third sector organisations insights from the 'Real Times' qualitative longitudinal study. Dr. Rob Macmillan Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham 5 th ESRC Research Methods Festival St. Katharine’s College, Oxford 2 nd July 2012.

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Dr. Rob Macmillan Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham

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  1. Understanding change in third sector organisations insights from the 'Real Times' qualitative longitudinal study Dr. Rob Macmillan Third Sector Research Centre University of Birmingham 5th ESRC Research Methods Festival St. Katharine’s College, Oxford 2nd July 2012

  2. Two moments in civil society… ‘Larch’ • Deprived ex-mining village – housing and community-based regeneration • Heritage Centre, Youth Club, Village Hall, successful community shop/café, new social enterprise • An uneven landscape of participation, e.g. ‘Brown hair turning grey’ • ‘Birch’ • Secure local advice agency growing through local authority funding and additional contracts • Annual surplus to ‘weather the storm’ and for service development • Anticipating possible outsourcing opportunities

  3. ‘Real Times’ in a nutshell… Overall aim • To establish, maintain and analyse a qualitative longitudinal sample of third sector organisations, groups and activities • Access and engagement - experiences and dilemmas Research structure and timing • Diverse set of 15 core case studies plus a range of related ‘complementary’ case studies • Spring 2010 to Summer 2013: five waves of interviews, observations and documentary analysis Purpose and research questions • Understanding how third sector activity operates in practice over time • Fortunes, strategies, challenges and performance • What happens, what matters, and understanding continuity and change

  4. Research context

  5. A diverse set of case studies • A large national charity delivering services – anticipating a changing funding and policy environment, and preparing a cutback plan • A specialist mental health charity – concerned to maintain its distinctive services amidst public spending cuts, the personalisation agenda and new models of intervention • A new social enterprise – pursuing growth beyond its local community • A co-operative sports club - trying to sustain initial enthusiasm and impetus • A local support project for teenage mothers – surviving an internal crisis, preparing for longer term sustainability • A parish plan action group – seeking to implement ‘quick wins’ in the village

  6. What happens next? • ‘Larch’ (now-ish) • Unsuccessful funding bids – youth club closes • Utility bills and winter damage - Heritage Centre closing down? • Contracting infrastructure support • Shop/café and new social enterprise still developing ‘Larch’ (then) • Deprived ex-mining village – housing and community-based regeneration • Heritage Centre, Youth Club, Village Hall, successful community shop/café, new social enterprise • An uneven landscape of participation, e.g. ‘Brown hair turning grey’

  7. What happens next? ‘Birch’ (then) • Secure local advice agency growing through local authority funding and additional contracts • Annual surplus to ‘weather the storm’ and for service development • Anticipating possible outsourcing opportunities • ‘Birch’ (now-ish) • LA reviews provision and cuts basic funding, pending re-commissioning • Birch forced to consider closing services in hiatus • A debate on tactical responses • Reprieve, redundancies and re-organising structures and services – ‘transition’?

  8. The overall story so far A picture dominated by cuts for some… • From anticipatory anxiety to the experience of public spending cuts • Restructuring and redundancies • Ongoing uncertainty about the scale and scope of cuts, and emerging policy agendas • Thwarted plans and contained ambitions But not for all… • Organisations planning growth • Re-positioning and the development of new ventures and services • Relative insulation from the changing context

  9. Understanding (organisational) change • Narrative profiles, storylines and ‘process tracing’ • ‘Organizing’ as perpetual motion • Exploring the quality of change - experiencing and narrating change • Endogenous/exogenous • Fast/slow • Rough/smooth • Deliberate/imposed • Anticipated/unforeseen • Incidental/consequential • Stability and change in strategic action fields (Fligstein and McAdam 2012) • Organisations-as-fields, organisations-in-fields • Sources of stability and change: interdependence, sensitivity and proximate social fields – ‘a stone thrown in a still pond’ • Unsettlement and resettlement: of positions, norms and institutions

  10. Further information • ‘Real Times’ is being undertaken by a core team of five researchers at TSRC: Rob Macmillan, AndriSoteri-Proctor, Simon Teasdale, Rebecca Taylor and MalinArvidson • Macmillan, R (2011) Seeing things differently? The promise of qualitative longitudinal research on the third sector TSRC Working Paper 56, March 2011 • Macmillan, R et al (2011) First Impressions: introducing the ‘Real Times’ third sector case studies TSRC Working Paper 67, November 2011 www.tsrc.ac.uk

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