The social and economic experiences of older people in Scotland over the past two centuries provides a particularised lens through which larger themes of change and adaptation may be analysed. Older age cohorts are examined as specific identity groups within the context of a society in rapid transformation. The years c. 1845-1999 represent a period of time in which almost every sector was affected by industrialisation, urbanisation, migration, economic developments, technological and medical progress, and social reform. In combination with historical interpretations, modern sociological theory concerning the aged as a distinct social grouping provides the basis for further inquiry. Concepts such as status, social capital, interdependency, paternalism and citizenship have been of major importance in structuring this research. By means of demographic analysis, readings of written biographical documentation, and the incorporation of over fifty oral histories conducted in Dundee and Edinburgh, the role of the family in older people’s lives has been explored. Nineteenth and twentieth-century population trends have been incorporated as an area for detailed investigation of long-term familial practices. An understanding of the older person’s role in the family over time suggests a formalised socio-economic stability based upon kinship ties, gender roles, and economic and social reciprocity. Stage theory allows for examination of the economics of ageing, particularly in regard to employed and retired older people. Original research covering older people’s experiences of work in Dundee and Edinburgh provides qualitative and quantitative data on paternalistic policies in the brewing and jute industries, promotion and retirement practices, and economic status among the working elderly. The experience of being retired has been evaluated in terms of economic independence, social capital, class and gender. Analyses of the experience of retirement in the post-war era are bound with the rise of the modern welfare state. Significant government commissions and acts provide scope and sequence in an analysis of the role of the state in old age. Principally, the New Poor Law of 1845 (Scotland), the Pension Acts of 1908 and 1925, the National Insurance Act of 1946, as well as the social welfare acts of 1948 have been studied. Particular focus on the influence of the Social Work Act 1968 (Scotland) complements an overarching argument concerning Scotland’s unique practices in the modern welfare state. Emphasis is on care in the community, using statutory and voluntary services provided at the local level as case studies. Interpretations of older people in terms of their various roles in the welfare state, their communities and places of work, and within their families indicate that throughout the period, older populations have distinctively adapted to the long-term effects of modernisation in Scottish society.

In the beginning of the nineties there was a change in how the voluntary sector was perceived, and the significance of their work became reevaluated and more acknowledged. As a result, this sector gained a new and higher interest. The changes and downsizing in the welfare state with economic crises, due to political cutback, made the politicians look fore new solutions. One solution is to encourage cooperation between the public sector and the voluntary sector in order to handle the different needs of individuals. Uppsala community and the voluntary sector are working closely together within a project called “God Livsmiljö”. The purpose of the project is to work for a better quality of life for elderly people and dysfunctional persons, as well as for the ones who are nursing family or someone close at home. The aim of this paper is to investigate if the cooperation between the community in Uppsala and the voluntary sector contributes to the social welfare in Uppsala. This essay is conducted through a qualitative case study. I have used a method based on interviews combined with four selected theories which explain the voluntary sector from different perspectives. My results show that the voluntary sector’s contribution to the welfare through the project is of importance. Furthermore, the work of the voluntary sector can be seen as complementary, more on a human level, to the service delivered by the community. There has proved to be no competition between the two sectors. This study shows that the emerging of a strong voluntary sector not mainly is an effect of downsizing of social welfare. There could also be an explanation to the voluntary sector as a reaction to the change of family structure in the modern society.

By conducting a case study of two diaconal institutions, Samariterhemmet in Uppsala/Sweden and the Evangelisches Diakoniewerk Schwäbisch Hall e.V. in Germany, the thesis compares the roles of church diaconal work within the Swedish and the German welfare system. These two systems are characterised by the different roles given to independent welfare organisations. The overarching research question is if and in which way the two diaconal institutions are effected by current changes within the field of welfare and how these changes challenge them to redefine their roles. The material analysed contains written documents, interviews with selected representatives and the results of participant observation in both institutions. As changes in the roles of independent welfare organisations were expected the results are unexpected. The two diaconal institutions show considerable persistence. Neither the orientation of their fields of work nor their own definitions of their roles within the welfare system have changed during the 1990s. In addition, the study reveals that both institutions regard themselves as a critical voice within the welfare system although their welfare engagement differs considerably. The German institution is a huge welfare provider while the Swedish institution conducts targeted initiatives. The analysis of four decisions within hospital work reveals that security of planning and freedom of action motivate the institutions to undertake responsibility for social services. The study points especially to the fields of education and research helping the institutions to maintain and to develop the diaconal profile. Altogether the results underline the need for more research on the meso-level of the third sector. This would contribute to a more nuanced discussion on the future role of independent welfare organisations within the Swedish and the German welfare system.

Over the last three decades, scholars in management, policy, and geography have examined the growing economic, social, and spatial impact of the financial sector. Venture capital firms have been a focus, generating a contested but deep literature around the roles of such "value-adding" capital providers in supporting the growth of firms, industries, and various territorial innovation models. In parallel, there has been substantial government support-financial, regulatory, and otherwise-of these private sector financial intermediaries, despite scepticism. The past twenty years have seen the emergence and rapid growth of analogous funders in the third sector, itself the realm of substantial experimentation and growth. These new intermediaries, "venture philanthropists", have become important players in shaping, structuring, and channelling funding to the third sector. The activities and effects of venture philanthropists are underexplored, as are their growing interactions with governments-despite intentional and striking similarities between the evolution of venture capital and that of venture philanthropy. This dissertation addresses these gaps by systematically examining the emergence, evolution, and operational practices of two influential British venture philanthropy funds: the first such fund in Europe (Impetus Trust) and the first fund in the world co-created with the state (Inspiring Scotland). The two venture philanthropy organisations (VPOs)-one with roots in venture capital, the other with roots in the voluntary and government sectors-both conducted the venture capital-inspired operational model of venture philanthropy in similar ways. That said, the VPOs reflected the logics and practices of their founders and funders. Impetus Trust more closely resembled early-stage venture capital, with a reliance on London-based networks, funders, and service providers-and a heavily London-focused portfolio. Inspiring Scotland evidenced the logics of government rather than charity in several instances, with substantial original research into social issues, heavily structured portfolios on set timelines, and regionally-distributed staff. This approach broadened access, allowing support of SPOs and their clients across various (and underserved) geographies, but limited options for opportunity-driven or expressive functions of philanthropy. I surveyed the CEOs of most organisations supported by the two venture philanthropy funds (82 of 98 charities and social businesses), supplemented by interviews of selected CEOs and the founders and staff of the two funds. I find that, overall, the two VPOs each engaged in seven core activities of venture capital, intentionally adapting them to the third sector: sourcing and selection, due diligence, an engaged relationship, provision of funding, provision of non-financial support, creation of network linkages, and intentional exiting of relationships. As in venture capital, this process had broader effects: providing signals of investee quality, preparing investees for subsequent funding, and expanding networks. The combination of long-term relationships and high formal reporting requirements imposed significant costs for SPOs-and also created a virtuous cycle of trust and collaboration between VPOs and SPOs. The venture philanthropy model also had broader societal effects, creating data regarding individual organisations and the efficacy of responses to social issues, which in both cases informed policy. As intermediaries, venture philanthropists decreased power differentials and improved the flow of (oft-anonymized) information amongst funders, statutory bodies, and funded organisations, facilitating several types of collaboration. SPO managers indicated that they received, on average, approximately ten different types of non-financial support-like strategy consulting, human resources support, or legal counsel. These managers reported in interviews and surveys that the non-financial services provided by venture philanthropists were highly valued, on average. Further, managers believed these services provided more value than it cost the VPOs to provide them. Likewise, managers highly valued most forms of new networking connections (though not all services or linkages were found to be valuable). Smaller SPOs valued services and network links more highly than larger SPOs, although all sizes of SPOs indicated both were valuable, on average. Importantly, this data was provided by SPO managers and focused on the SPO-VPO dyad-rather than provided by VPOs and focused at the portfolio or trust level. This filled an important gap in the literature: academics and practitioners often lament that the voices of charities supported by foundations are not often enough heard, which limits our understanding of many aspects of organizational philanthropy and its effects-in particular the burdens and benefits for recipient organisations. I documented the co-creation of the first government-supported venture philanthropy fund through eleven interviews with founding managers and government officials. This model, in which state, private, and civil society actors collectively founded and funded a value-adding capital provider, militates against neoliberal assumptions of an ever-diminishing state, as does the leveraging of private resources in alignment with state aims-though it raises concerns around democratic processes, accountability, and local control. This work helps inform the changing nature of the voluntary sector and its relationship with the state. I focus on the increasing interaction of actors between and across systems-sometimes in new roles and coordinated by new intermediaries-in the allocation of resources and delivery of services in the public interest. These new interactions inform broad bodies of work that seek to understand changing sectoral roles, most notably discourses surrounding neoliberalism(s), financialisation, and public management. Overall, I find privately- and publicly-funded venture philanthropy playing a role in the third sector analogous to the role of venture capital in the private sector, with similar practices and concomitant effects in data generation, network formation and strengthening, facilitating partnerships, and signalling the quality of supported organisations. By examining two such emerging models of capital provision, I contribute grounded understanding of the way such systems are created and function across the private, public, and third sectors.

Ce travail prétend contribuer à une meilleure compréhension des mutations contemporaines durapport entre politique et religion dans la modernité, à travers le prisme de l’action sociale entreprise par lesacteurs religieux et sa croissante prise en compte par les États avec la mise en oeuvre de « partenariatspublic-religieux ». À l’heure où la crise des États-providence impose à ces derniers de repenser leursmodèles et leur pratique du social, les entités religieuses, toujours plus diverses et engagées, non seulementdans l’objectif du salut des âmes, mais également dans leur bien-être et leur sécurité physique et matérielle,offrent une alternative crédible à des États de plus en plus « superviseurs » et non plus « fournisseurs » debiens et services sociaux. Le Brésil contemporain, qui retiendra ici notre attention, où la souplesse de laséparation entre l’État et les Églises permet l’instauration d’une véritable collaboration de type « gagnantgagnant», voit aujourd’hui l’émergence et la multiplication du recours à ces « partenariats public-religieux »dont ce travail proposera une définition et une typologie. Des formes de coopération entre un État et desentités religieuses catholiques certes, mais de plus en plus évangéliques, spirites-kardécistes, mormones,chamanistes ou encore afro-brésiliennes, qui offrent un prisme d’analyse original des transformations del’action publique de l’État et des évolutions du champ religieux aujourd’hui à l’oeuvre. Plus encore, les« partenariats public-religieux » reflètent de manière symptomatique la reconfiguration des relations entreles sphères politique et religieuse et, de façon plus générale, du rapport entre modernité et religion à l’èreglobale, dont ce travail, centré sur le Brésil mais empreint de comparatisme, cherchera à rendre compte. / The present work purports to contribute to a better understanding of the contemporaneous changes of the relationship between Politics and Religion, through the lenses of the growing social action undertaken by religious actors and the increasing account Governments are taking of it via the establishment of “public-religious partnerships”. At a time when the crisis of welfare statesrequires of them to rethink their models and social practices, the religious entities, more and more diverse and committed, not only to the salvation of souls, but also to their material and physical welfare and security, offer a credible alternative to Governments which have become more “supervisors” rather than “providers” of social goods and services. The Brazilian case – which will here command our attention –, where the “flexible separation” between State and Churches allows the instauration of successful win-win collaborations, witnesses the emergence and the proliferation of those “public-religious partnerships” that this work will attempt to define and typologize. These forms of collaborations between the State and the historical Catholic entities of course, but also increasingly with Evangelical, Spirit-Kardecist, Mormon or even Afro-Brazilian actors, offer a relevant framework of interpretation for the transformations of the State and the public action, and also of the evolutions of the religious sphere. Thus, the “public-religious partnerships” reflect in a symptomatic way the actual reshaping of the spheres and the relationship between Modernity and Religion in the global era, which the present study will attempt to portray.

The researcher conducted a qualitative study to determine the relationship between Local Government and the welfare organizations in the Eersterust community. In the previous political dispensation Eersterust was a community that was disadvantaged in terms of services by Local Government. Although Local Government is now tasked with a social development responsibility, its role regarding welfare organizations still does not go beyond rendering basic services, such as making premises and recreational facilities available. The research findings indicated that there is no clarity on the relationship; welfare organizations are uncertain of what is expected of them by Local Government and what they can expect from Local Government. / Health Studies / M.A.(Social Science (Mental Health))

The researcher conducted a qualitative study to determine the relationship between Local Government and the welfare organizations in the Eersterust community. In the previous political dispensation Eersterust was a community that was disadvantaged in terms of services by Local Government. Although Local Government is now tasked with a social development responsibility, its role regarding welfare organizations still does not go beyond rendering basic services, such as making premises and recreational facilities available. The research findings indicated that there is no clarity on the relationship; welfare organizations are uncertain of what is expected of them by Local Government and what they can expect from Local Government. / Health Studies / M.A.(Social Science (Mental Health))