Birmingham Seminar Series
The Third Sector Research Centre hosts short seminars at Birmingham University to share current research by TSRC and others at the University of Birmingham.
All the seminars will be 12.00-1.30pm in Park House, University of Birmingham (See directons/map)
Registration is not required please just come along. If you have any queries, please contact Rebecca Berridge: r.berridge@tsrc.ac.uk
Upcoming seminars
Tuesday 21 February 2012, 12.00 – 13.30
Lost in translation? Understanding policy genesis: the example of the ‘Big Society’
James Rees
Place: Courtyard Room, Park House
Throughout 2010 The Big Society was a key organising concept for the Coalition Government's political strategy and policy development. In late 2011 the Big Society was declared 'dead' by some. This seminar doesn't attempt to explore the whys and wherefores of the Big Society idea. Instead, it traces key themes within Big Society back to their geographical and temporal roots and draws on and extends the work of Richard Freeman to show how the construction of the Big Society concept can be understood as a process of 'translation'.
The seminar explores the benefits of a translation approach, discussing key elements of the Big Society to illustrate what processes, issues, and difficulties arise through policy translation. The idea of policy as translation alerts us to the political constructions and ambiguities of meaning inherent in the process. By analysing three key strands of the Big Society as translation we highlight what was reified, what was lost and how the act of articulating these can open a space for contestation. This helps us to question the apparent consensus that the Big Society is somehow post-ideological or entirely vacuous. We also discuss how Freeman's ideas compare to other ways of looking at 'policy on the move'.
Dr. James Rees is a Research Fellow at TSRC, University of Birmingham.
Registration is not required please just come along.
Tuesday 6 March 2012, 12.00 – 13.30
Unsubordinated collaboration between governments and NGOs in South Asia
Richard Batley
Place: Park House
The presentation will refer to research on collaboration between governments and NGOs in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan in three services: basic education, health-care, and sanitation. It questions the premise that NGOs that collaborate lose their autonomy and capacity for policy influence. It finds that, even where NGOs operate in constraining institutional environments and enter agreements with government, certain conditions allow them to exercise strategic choices in response.
Richard Batley is Emeritus Professor of Development Administration at the International Development Department, School of Government and Society, University of Birmingham.
Registration is not required please just come along.
Future seminars
Tuesday 3 April 2012,12.00-13.30
Social enterprise, crime, and ethics
Jon Griffith
Wednesday 9 May 2012, 12.00-13.30
The other boundary of the third sector: an exploration of hybridity and ‘informal’ groups
David Billis