This thesis investigates the largely neglected role of NGOs as `institutions of representation' through a study of the public fundraising and advocacym essageso f UKbased international development NGOs (UKNGOs) with special focus on visual images. It draws upon post-colonial, cultural, media, development and social policy studies to examine how UKNGOs' public messages construct, and connect, developed (DW) and developing i. e. majority (MW) worlds, and why. This is achieved through a study of the `representational field' that incorporates three interlinked levels of messagesrepresentation, production and reception. The thesis develops a conceptual framework to analyse an annual corpus of UKNGOs' public messages (2005-06) through content and discourse analyses and Semiotics. It is complemented by interviews with UKNGO staff and members of British audiences. While there are instanceso f counter-hegemonicm essagesth at resist overall projections, many `ways of seeing', rooted in colonialism, Orientalism, Africanism and development, are embeddedi n UKNGOs' messagesth at project MW as `different' and `distant' from the DW. `Difference' and `distance' are realised, in intricate ways, through discursive strategies of infantilisation, feminisation and binaries of urban, dynamic DW and rural, stagnant MW. Global poverty is also represented in terms of `natural' or `internal' MW causes with small-scale development providing easy solutions. Simultaneously, the representations circumvent the historical context of, and continuities between, European colonialism and current global poverty instead connecting DW and MW through a de-historicised `oneness' of universal humanism. De-contextualisation in UKNGOs' communications stems from isomorphic managerialism, commercialisation and assumptions of a mono-cultural, fixed and a priori `Britishness' of audiences that precludes engagement with its imperial past. However, the plurality and commonalities of audience responses both challenge `Britishness' and reveal its durability. The thesis argues for a greater acknowledgment of NGOs as significant mediating institutions to expand and deepen audiences' understandings of global inequalities. 3

This study explores the impact of resource relations on NGO independence. Specifically, the research question is: "Can NGOs be resource dependent on the government and remain independent. If so, how." Most of the non-profit and NGO literatures on this topic suggest a negative relationship between government funding and NGO independence, called here "the piper hypothesis" due to frequent references to the saying "they who pay the piper call the tune." The piper hypothesis, if true, describes an increasingly critical situation in this time of increasing "partnerships' between government and NGOs. However, in the organisational theory literature, Resource Dependency Perspective (RDP) suggests that organisations can pursue strategies to protect their independence and resist external control. This study explores the independence strategies pursued by NGOs when they receive government funding, drawing on and building upon an RDP lens. Independence is a complex concept encompassing many dimensions of managerial attitudes and organisational behaviour. To explore the piper hypothesis, this study adopted a qualitative research design, comparing NGO case-studies in Mexico and Portugal. Surprisingly, my findings mostly disproved the "piper hypothesis". In both countries, some NGOs that received the great majority of their funding from the government still managed to retain a very high level of organisational independence, suggesting a paradox: NGOs can in some conditions remain independent and non-governmental even when the majority of their resources are of governmental origin. There were various conditions that help explain the paradox. Contrary to common assumptions, proportion of government funding is not equal to resource dependence since NGOs are rich in non-pecuniary resources, which are often overlooked in analyses of NGO resource dependence. Moreover, the government is often not interested or is incapable of controlling NGOs, leaving much room for NGO discretion in partnership programmes. At the same time, NGOs can and do pursue strategies to protect their independence when they receive government funding. These strategies have been mostly ignored in the nonprofit and NGO literatures. One particularly important set of strategies involved strengthening organisational commitment to mission, through strengthening leadership structures and accountability to the grassroots. This set of strategies was ignored by RDP and most subsequent research on resource dependence. These findings have important implications for theory, policy and management. Contrary to much of the literature on NGOs and non-profits, resource dependence on government funding was not a sufficient condition for low organizational independence. RDP provided a useful framework to begin an exploration of why this was so. In fact, applying RDP to understand NGOs was mutually enriching. RDP suggests various independence strategies for NGOs, which have been neglected in the non-profit and NGO literatures. Likewise, examining NGOs suggested new possible independence strategies, which have been ignored by RDP. In terms of policy, government can take various steps to help protect NGO independence. In terms of management, NGOs can and often do manage the paradox of resource dependence and organisational independence, by pursuing various independence strategies. Moreover, since resource dependence can emerge from sources other than funding and because of the importance of organisational independence for NGOs and non-profits, even organisations that do not receive government funding need to take active steps to manage their independence.

The study of Non-Governmental Organisations’ (NGOs’) accountability has lagged behind that in the private sector in the areas of empirical details and theoretical foundation. This thesis analyses the research question: How do NGOs practice accountability and what is the theoretical basis for this practice? To answer this question, the study develops a descriptive framework that classifies accountability practices along two broad dimensions: one based on the form of giving accounts (which could be process or performance) and the other based on the form of holding to account (which could be contractual or communal). The resulting four possibilities were built into a framework around which a theory was developed and used to guide the empirical investigation in 6 NGOs, 3 in the UK and 3 in Africa. The study rejects the rigidly structured research approach of the rationalist school and the completely unstructured approach of the phenomenological school. In regard to the exploratory nature of the research question, it adopts a ‘middle range thinking’ approach proceeding with a partly structured process and a prior theory in ‘skeletal’ form ‘fleshed out’ with the findings as the study progressed. The research finds that the bulk of the resources utilised by NGOs are derived from the global north while the bulk of the needs for NGOs’ services are in the global south, and that this influences accountability practices across both sides of the hemisphere. Because of the nature of NGO’s objectives and activities, it is argued traditional accounting’s capability to provide a full account of NGOs’ performance is severely limited. This, coupled with the involvement of multiple stakeholders with varied needs, has resulted in the use of multiple systems of accountability. In total eight practices were identified, spread across the four possible approaches in the theoretical framework with practices aimed at the needs of the statutory authorities and the Institutional donors dominating in the UK NGOs. Where southern NGOs have a large part of their income supplied by northern hemisphere Institutional donors only the accountability needs of these donors dominates as the local regulatory frameworks are weak. The insights from the thesis raise a range of policy issues about the form and regulation of accountability by NGOs and the role of the Institutional donors in it.

No description available.

Against a backdrop of an increasingly globalised capitalism, the great recession and a new State administration, this empirical study brings together literature on NGO legitimacy, the State, and neoliberalism to examine the legitimacy of labour migration advocacy work in non-governmental organisations. Based on interviews with 39 people, the research examines the work between two large international development charities, two medium-sized organisations and the British State. From the perspectives of managers and managing directors across the organisations, the study highlights new legitimacy practices that have developed as a result of working with a different administration. Yet only by considering the nature of legitimacy and understanding why it is now more of a vital feature than before, in the interaction between organisation and State, can this research raise deeper advocacy questions about the role of the State in labour migration advocacy work in NGOs. The multi-layered conceptual framework of the thesis is brought together to examine the legitimacy of advocacy work in a neoliberal political economy, where the State is the key actor and is bound by a realist social ontology. The interest in Karl Marx and Ralph Miliband stems from the belief that access to the economy is a key way to improve other important aspects of life.

The thesis aims to explain increasing accountability in the French nonprofit sector. The qualitative research investigates the hypothesis that engendering trust is the key rationale for increasing accountability. The research also explores inductively other potential rationales for increasing accountability (e.g. corporatisation, integration of international standards of accountability, donor pressure, and the media). US regulatory, self-regulatory, and voluntary models of accountability provide reference standards. The study targets 45 renowned French NPOs. 33 are members of a national independent accountability accreditation organisation (Comite de la Charte de Deontologie), and 12 comprise a control group. The driving voice is the perspective of the most senior leaders of respondent organisations, almost all executive directors, board Presidents, or board members. The theoretical framework centres on Henry Hansmann's theory of trust (derived from legal restrictions on profit distribution or the "nondistribution constraint') as an explanation for the origin and on-going efficacy of the nonprofit form. First establishing the relevance of Hansmann's demand side theory in France, the analysis then bridges Hansmann's rationale for the nonprofit organisational structure to analysis of how and why French NPOs supplement the intrinsic characteristics of that structure with accountability. Hansmann might call this organisational effort the "supply side." Finally, the emerging spectrum from Hansmann's trust to Lester Salamon's suggestion that accountability is the modern foundation for trust because the nondistribution constraint no longer suffices also frames the analysis. The proposed definition of accountability combines a general definition and an operationalised definition (derived from scholarly literature and best practice, respectively). The analysis highlights organisations' strategic assessment of quantitative/non-quantitative considerations in accountability-related decisions, including the impact of specified internal organisational variables and external contextual variables. The most oft-cited rationale for increasing accountability is ethical, effective management, followed by donor trust. Donor trust proves essential and fragile - irrespective of cited rationale for increasing accountability.

Social care charity organisations with long histories face an 'identity crisis' regarding who they are today in the context of the current UK social care marketplace. This empirical research addresses issues of organisational identity (OI) and its re-constructing (OIRC) as 'work' (Alvesson and Sveningsson, 2003: 1165) over time. Based on a longitudinal case study of a care provider charity, this study integrates a range of OI theory and interpretivist approaches. It explores OI formation, and identifies early OI 'content' at founding which evolves over eighty years through a 'process' of translating the original 'proto-identity attributes' (Kroezen and Heugens, 2012). Central to this are the contributions of care-receivers: stakeholders who are often underestimated members of the organisational audience, but who offer resources in the organisational identity re-construction process. In the case study, innovative methods were developed to explore how care-receivers (including people with dementia) contributed to the evolution of the charity's spiritual identity and spiritual care practices within a nested case (Yin, 2003). The study offers three contributions to the management and organisational studies literature concerning OI in a care charity. Firstly it addresses the significance of OI 'content' at founding: the DNA constituting 'who we are in the organisation'. Secondly, it connects OI 'content' and OI 'process' by proposing that the work of OJRC involves 'translating' this OI substance into contemporary contexts to address: 'who are we now?' and 'who we are becoming?' The third contribution is that the framing of OIRC within an 'ethic of care' (EOC) enables a critical approach to understanding the contribution of care-receivers to OIRC in care charities as a care 'practice' (Barnes, 2012:6). The study adds to the growing literature in respect of the application of an EOC in management and organisational studies and opens up possibilities for 'concept development' (Gioia et al, 2012).

The term 'postsecular' has increasingly been used to describe the post-9-11 West. However, much postsecular discourse only concerns abstract political theory (postsecularism). Empirical research testing postsecularisation-which, significantly, is almost never mentioned, is 'lacking' (Leezenberg, 2010: 111), or at the very least, 'underdeveloped' (Beckford, 2012). This study provides a bridge for the empirical and theoretical literatures. Is postsecularism just a normative ideology (like secularism before it) or does it coincide with a process-postsecularisation? Is 'postsecularity' a useful term for contemporary postmodern society? The possibilities for a postsecular religion in a postsecular public sphere-as manifested in politically-active, Catholic Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs)-are explored through an ethnographic approach, incorporating participant observation, in-depth semistructured interviews, and document analysis. This thesis contributes to the small but growing body of research on FBOs and can be divided into two main areas: At the individual level of analysis, the idea of a 'postsecular spirituality' is investigated-what kind of religion (if any) do members of our FBO case studies practice? At the organisation and structural level, what kind of relationship do these FBOs have with each other, with secular NGOs and with the government? Findings point towards a picture of contemporary spirituality within 'Catholic' FBOs as individualised, fragmented, and exploratory in nature. Furthermore, FBOs not only provide a space for non-traditional spirituality, but are taking on characteristics of 'new religious movements' or even religious orders, producing their own rituals, devotions and theologies. At the organisational and structural level, boundaries between sacred and secular, and indeed between governmental and non-governmental become 'blurred' (c.f. Baker, 2006). Much of this is possible because of a 'postsecular pragmatism' that is indicative of a period of transition. In this light, it may be that we have entered not a 'Post-secular Age' so much as a 'trans-secular' one.

This context statement gives an opportunity for reviewing evidence gathered, and methodologies utilised within the UK charity project Panjazz international, over the last twenty years, using music as a vehicle for cohesion and change in communities in the UK, South Africa and India. The structure of the document derives from the title – ‘Panjazz International – A powerful model for change.’ Each chapter is subdivided into ‘Power, Model and Change’ to afford the statement greater cohesion as well as contextualising the title of the research. The evidence presented in this context statement and the supporting materials, is in the form of music scores of compositions, arrangements and transcriptions, audio tracks, photographic and DVD footage. A music workshop and performance at the time of the final assessment of this work will also be referred to as evidence for this context statement. In addition, more than 500 public performances, overseas concert tours, workshops and testimonials, along with examples from the author’s extensive career in music education, complete a comprehensive body of evidence on which the conclusions of this context statement are formulated. The Context Statement offers insights into ways in which Panjazz International has achieved success in promoting the development of a range of related skills, including supporting health and social agendas, and encouraging pericipants to develop awareness and regard for environmental issues. Pedagogical approaches are explored, including areas suited to creating and supporting new local, national and international communities. Since its inception, Panjazz International has consistently used music as a vehicle for change.

No description available.