By Razia Shariff
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.
We have a number of abstracts and briefing papers, and will soon have working papers, available on the website:
In the first Pete Alcock the Director of TSRC explains our research approach and strategy to achieve the vision of a sustainable, valuable and influential research centre.
Our second paper explores voluntary sector policy and the impact of devolution - and asks if we have experienced devolution or divergence in third sector policy across the UK since 2000.
Our third paper uses evidence from an inner city community to explore if social enterprises can address social exclusion and different potential impacts and limitations of the social enterprise model.
Our forth paper continues on the social enterprise theme looking at past approaches, challenges and the future direction of mapping social enterprises.
Our fifth paper considers how social enterprises respond to the needs of homeless people.
Our sixth paper compares surveys on individual formal voluntary participation in the UK to try and identify trends in survey information, and how the methodology and type of questionnaire affects the outcome.
Our seventh paper explores measuring the value of social and community impact of social enterprises delivering public services in a period of unprecedented change and shifting role of the sector.
Our eighth paper investigates issues of theme and focus in exploring below the radar activity, and some of the key variables that need to be considered when looking at these activities.
Our ninth paper introduces us to the innovative world of micro-mapping as a method to critically engage with theoretical debates on existing definitions and classifications of smaller third sector activity.
As you can see our researchers have been busy! We received a very positive response at our debut into the world of conferences, with much interest in the research we have undertaken to date. This is only the beginning. The point of the research is to stimulate debate and identify areas which require further research - so please read the abstracts (the web page), the briefing papers (4 sides of A4) or the full working papers and let us know if you have comments or queries. You can post something on the research stream discussion board, or send the research contact an e-mail.