Blog

October was a month of reflection on the different events we attended, our website going live ( thanks to the persistance and perseverance of our wonderwoman Naomi), working on developing a monitoring and evaluation approach for our knowledge exchange work and reading our next round of research papers for publication in November (to be covered in next months blog !)

We participated in a number of very different events during the month so I will give a brief outline and web links so that you can find out more:

I’ve often heard people in the third sector say that the government, and local authorities, don’t really understand third sector organisations. I’m pretty sure I’ve said something along the same lines myself. But now that I think about it, I’m not entirely sure what it means to say this.

‘Real Times’ is a programme of in-depth research studying how third sector organisations actually work in practice over time. We’re interested in capturing vivid, moving pictures of real life in third sector organisations – what really happens, how they change or stay the same over time, what really matters, and what counts. Essentially then, the research is about trying to gain a better understanding of how different kinds of third sector organisation work.

The term below (or under) the radar has come into common parlance to describe small, community based, organisations and activities in the third sector, where either the group is not registered with the Charity Commission, does not appear on other national registers (such as Companies House), or has limited and uncertain income. 

Yet, initial research by the 'below the radar' work-stream at the Third Sector Research Centre indicates that the term itself is controversial. Its use generates a range of both negative - and positive - responses.

September is conference season and we have used this as an opportunity to showcase what TSRC has been busy working on over the past year - yes it's been a year since ESRC and OTS announced the launch of the national Third Sector Research Centre! We have produced a number of publications based on the emerging research streams, which we promoted at the NCVO -VSSN Conference in Warwick, the DTA Annual Conference in London and the NAVCA Conference in Blackpool.

You may be wondering what we have been doing since October 2008 when the TSRC was officially launched – well this blog will give you an insight into the hard work underway by our researchers in Birmingham and Southampton Universities and our activities as the knowledge exchange team (KET) based in London. We don’t expect to offer ground breaking news or politically controversial views, but an insight into how our research is progressing, and reflections on the potential implications for policy and practice. The researcher’s blogs will comment on their latest findings, their reflections and the implications for academia.