Change in the making: A Dynamic and Relational Analysis of Voluntary Action, 2010-2020

Mohan, John and Ellis Paine, Angela and Macmillan, Rob (2023). Change in the making: A Dynamic and Relational Analysis of Voluntary Action, 2010-2020. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-856572

'Change in the Making' is an exciting and unique study of change in the third sector over time. To our knowledge, nothing like it has been attempted elsewhere, and the changes and challenges in the operating environment for the third sector make it extremely timely.

Our project investigates the ways in which change is negotiated, created and contested by a range of different stakeholders in diverse third sector settings. It focuses attention on organisations as contested spaces of collective action, involving the interplay of multiple stakeholders, such as paid staff, volunteers, service users and commissioners, all with different interests. The study will build on, extend and enhance the Third Sector Research Centre's ground-breaking long term 'Real Times' programme of research with third sector organisations carried out between 2010 and 2014.

Change in the Making is a timely study given the challenges facing voluntary organisations at the present time. It will be of great value for those interested in how third sector activities are sustained, and in how third sector organisations adapt to change over time. The 'Real Times' study followed the fortunes of a set of third sector case studies through an unsettled environment, involving a combination of political and institutional change and a challenging financial context, particularly for organisations drawing on public funds to carry out their work. Hence the original research charted the first years of adjustment to austerity.

Change in the Making takes the story forward through three further intensive waves of fieldwork, over four years, with four of the original case studies. In line with the study's aims we deepen the analysis of the longitudinal case studies by broadening the range of research participants at each case study site, and we place their experience in context by situating the case studies within wider field developments. A focus on a smaller number of cases allows us to refresh and deepen our research questions. The longitudinal approach facilitates a longer term perspective on the rhythms of organisational change and continuity. By the end of the proposed study we will have engaged with the case study organisations for nearly ten years from 2010 through to 2019, i.e. surviving through an initial period of austerity, but with uncertain prospects in the years ahead. We know already how these organisations and activities have survived through to 2014, but what happens next, and more specifically how is what happens next shaped by different influences and stakeholders?

The study informs and advances academic debates on conceptualisation of, change in, and the character of, the third sector. It is of great relevance to policy and practice debates because it provides great insights into how change is made and experienced in the third sector on an everyday basis. It develops our understanding of how third sector organisations really work in practice, through its in-depth engagement with individual organisations. No other British study has been able to do this. It informs the development of policy and practice for and in the third sector, by providing real and vivid insights into the everyday dilemmas, pressures and practices of third sector organisational life, and thus shaping more realistic accounts of third sector activities than currently prevail. It extends the study of third sector activities over time and it thereby contributes a unique and innovative organisational dimension to the growing body of qualitative longitudinal work in the social sciences. It has the potential to impact upon third sector policy, practice and discourse: to influence the development of practice through bulding capacity within the third sector and to create conceptual impact through reframing the debate about third sector organisations and their role in society.

Data description (abstract)

Change in the Making is a study of change in voluntary action over time. Between 2016 and 2020 it investigated the ways in which change is negotiated, created and contested by a range of different stakeholders in diverse third sector settings. It focused attention on third sector organisations as contested spaces of collective action, involving the interplay of multiple stakeholders all with different interests.

The study built on the Third Sector Research Centre's ESRC-funded 'Real Times' programme of research with third sector organisations carried out between 2010 and 2014. Change in the Making focused on four case studies of voluntary action, selected from the 15 included in the original Real Times study to provide a contrasting set of organisational scales, structures, models of engagement, and trajectories of change.

The dataset includes transcripts from 121 in-depth interviews from across the four case study organisations, mostly with individuals but also a small number of paired and group interviews. Interviews were conducted with several groups of respondents associated with each of the case studies: trustees, staff (management and frontline), volunteers, service users, external partners (e.g. other organisations working in similar fields in the local area, funders etc), and national stakeholders (e.g. representatives from umbrella bodies relevant to the case studies). Sampling was purposive, with individual respondents identified through working with each of the case studies over time to identify key individuals, from each of the categories of respondents. The interviews were nearly all completed face to face, and lasted on average 60 minutes, although the length varied considerably. For the Change in the Making phase of interviews, two researchers – Angela Ellis Paine (AEP) and Rob Macmillan (RM) - were present for many of the interviews, with one of them leading the interview and the other joining in as appropriate.

The interviews were semi-structured, guided by a template topic guide that was adapted for individual respondents, and evolved over time as the research progressed. A copy is provided within the dataset.

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