• Antoine Rogers: "A Tale of Two Cities, Government Contracts and The Politics of Poverty: The Transatlantic Case Study of Settlements in Birmingham and Chicago"
• Chung Dao Pan: "The Relationship between the Taiwanese Welfare State and the Voluntary Sector: A Symbiotic Explanation"

• Graham Smith: "Social Economy, Social Enterprise and the Theory of Associative Democracy"

• Ben Cairns and Fred Rattley: "Church-Based Public Services: Lessons for Policy and Practice from a study of the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham"
• Christine Milligan: "Renewal or Relocation? Social Welfare, Voluntarism and the City"

Abstracts and Biographies

Antoine Rogers, arogers@luc.edu, "A Tale of Two Cities, Government Contracts and The Politics of Poverty: The Transatlantic Case Study of Settlements in Birmingham and Chicago"

Over the last four years, my research activities entailed extensive archival analysis, observations and interviews with front line workers and management of two multipurpose social service organizations in the US and UK; the Association House in Chicago and the Birmingham Settlement in Birmingham, England. Particularly this research looks at the challenges faced by both organizations with regard to State funding and specifically in the current contract culture. My research is a micro-level comparative analysis of the activities within both organizations over 100 years. I also compare social policy development in their respective countries during the same time. The common link for the organizations identified in this research is organizational survival.  This project tells a story of two community based social service organization and how activities within both worked to secure their survival amidst shifting political and social context.

I am an American student in the final year of my PhD. I come from the Chicago. I have been based at the Institute of Applied Social Studies at Birmingham University for the past three years. The Institute maintains a reciprocal relationship with Loyola University of Chicago where my studies originate. My research was originally based at The Centre for Urban Research and Learning located at Loyola University. I value the use of qualitative methodology to investigate social spaces. I have employed such methods throughout my research. 

Chung Dao Pan, "The Relationship between the Taiwanese Welfare State and the Voluntary Sector: A Symbiotic Explanation"

Over the past few decades, Taiwan has built its own welfare regime. Within this regime social welfare ideas continue to be affected by traditional notions of paternalism and altruism, which are fermented within the context of Confucianism. Like many Western welfare states, the Taiwanese government has utilized the voluntary sector to provide social services for a significant period of time. Thus, issues surrounding the relationship between state and voluntary sector are becoming increasingly important in Taiwanese social policy.

This paper focuses on the nature of that relationship between the state and voluntary sector. It asks whether this relationship is unique to Taiwanese society, and also considers to what extent the relationship could be explained by Western theories.

Within the context of Chinese culture, which differs markedly from Western cultures, personal networks, authority compliance, and modesty attitudes continue to play an important role in the building of a relationship between government and voluntary organizations. In order to meet the growing social needs of the population, the government needs to cooperate further with voluntary sector in the provision of social services.  In order to address these questions, this paper creates a symbiotic model. This model is used to explain the relationship between state and voluntary organizations within contemporary Taiwan. It also considers how this relationship compares with that of Western welfare states.

Chung Dao Pan is currently a doctoral student at Aston Business School, writing up his data. 

Graham Smith, "Social Economy, Social Enterprise and the Theory of Associative Democracy"

Contemporary Anglo-American political theory has paid little attention to the social economy – the term is not widely used or understood. Organisations within the social economy are generally only considered as just another element of civil society in, for example, theories of deliberative democracy, social capital, etc. There is a lack of attention given to the ‘specificity’ of the social economy.

This paper argues that Paul Hirst’s theory of associative democracy (Hirst, 1994, 1997) provides a valuable theoretical framework within which the potential of the social economy can be explored. Hirst’s theory of democratic renewal rests on extending the role of self-governing and democratic associations. The actual structure of these associations is not fleshed out in detail by Hirst – however their characteristics clearly resemble organisations found within the social economy. The social economy may provide a practical manifestation of his theoretical insights.  The paper concludes with a brief analysis of the extent to which current policy towards the social economy – in particular the attention given to social enterprise – might enable the emergence of associative democracy.

Graham Smith is a senior lecturer in Politics at the University of Southampton. His research interests include democratic theory and practice, environmental politics and, more recently, the social economy. He is currently advising the Power Inquiry on democratic innovations. For information on his publications, see www.politics.soton.ac.uk.

Ben Cairns and Fred Rattley, "Church-Based Public Services: Lessons for Policy and Practice from a study of the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham"

The UK government is increasingly interested in the potential and capacity of ‘faith-based organisations’ to contribute to social welfare, public service provision, community regeneration and civil renewal.  At the same time, the government is actively encouraging an increase in the volume of ‘public services’ to be delivered by third sector or ‘voluntary and community’ organisations (including churches and other faith groups).   This presentation brings together these two streams in public policy.  It builds on the findings of a recent action research study in the Anglican Diocese of Birmingham which explored the organisational and management implications for churches of taking a more active and prominent role in public services delivery.

The data revealed the many ways in which local churches deliver public services and contribute to the welfare of local populations; through flexible responses to social needs within local communities; by active engagement with diverse groups; through the imaginative use of physical and human resources; and by breaking down barriers across different groupings.  They contribute to building both bonding and bridging social capital. While the case study churches were rarely working with individuals whose difficulties demanded highly specialist expertise (for example drug users or people with serious mental health problems), they were often providing services and facilitating social contacts for people who were not in touch with other agencies. In many areas there were few other community resources.  The local and personalised nature of the churches’ welfare provision was particularly noted, as was their ability to welcome people who felt excluded from other organisations.  Although the public services provided by local churches were widely appreciated and were making a substantial contribution to the quality of life in their local areas, the study also showed that churches providing public services face a number of organisation and management challenges.  These were particularly apparent in relation to: volunteer recruitment, retention and management; the image and acceptability of churches as service providers; and the changing role of the parish priest as leader and manager.

Ben Cairns is the Director of the Centre for Voluntary Action Research (CVAR) at Aston Business School.  After 15 years as a senior practitioner in the voluntary sector, Ben co-founded CVAR with Margaret Harris in October 2000.  Since then, he has led the development of the Centre’s local, regional and national action research and capacity building programmes, focusing on five principal areas of organisation and management: inter-organisational relationships, collaborative working and mergers; faith and community; performance improvement and quality management; capacity building; and governance.

Christine Milligan, "Renewal or Relocation? Social Welfare, Voluntarism and the City"

Drawing on case study material from the Scottish city of Glasgow, this paper will explore how changes in urban policy and the shift to local governance and partnership working are impacting on local voluntary sector development. Its concern is to critically examine first, the impact of changes in urban policy on voluntary sector development at local level; and second, to consider how the voluntary sector is engaging with strategies of governance and partnership in contemporary Scotland and the extent to which this can be said to be contributing to a ‘renewed’ voluntary sector that offers real potential for holding the centre of civil society. While these developments in urban policy are not confined to Glasgow, the geographical approach we take in our case study will demonstrate that the changing landscape of urban policy has a considerable impact on how and where local voluntary welfare develops. While these policies are designed to target some of the most deprived areas of the city, we suggest that they can also act to create complex patterns of voluntary sector inclusion and exclusion.

Christine Milligan is a lecturer at Lancaster University. Her research interests include geographies of voluntarism, social welfare, and care restructuring in Scotland. She has published in a wide range of international refereed journals on geographical aspects of voluntarism and has also written a book on Geographies of Care: space, place and the voluntary sector. Her forthcoming (edited) book, Landscapes of Voluntarism: Health, Welfare and Governance, is due for publication by Policy Press in June 2006.  Recently completed ESRC funded research into voluntarism and social welfare in Glasgow (with Nick Fyfe), resulted in her appearing as an Expert Witness before the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice Committee inquiry into the voluntary sector in Scotland.

Nick Fyfe is a reader at the University of Dundee. His research interests include geographies of crime and criminal justice, discourses of urban development, and geographies of voluntarism and the 'shadow state'. He has published widely in these areas in international refereed journals and edited volumes. Nick is currently engaged in ESRC research on ‘Transnationalism, citizenship and the shadow state’ (with Allan Findlay). He is a member of the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee’s Research Panel on the Voluntary Sector and appeared as Expert Witness before the Scottish Parliament’s Social Justice Committee inquiry into the voluntary sector in Scotland.