Abstract
There is much to appreciate in this recent edited text on the Third Sector, but perhaps the most intriguing of all is the ambition of the project itself. As part of Emerald’s ‘Dialogues in Critical Management Studies’ series, the editors (comprising Richard Hull, Jane Gibbon, Oana Branzei and Helen Haugh) have drawn together a number of interesting chapters. The major theme that drives this project is one of exploring the many forces underlying ‘tensions’ in Third Sector research and practice. This approach is not only interesting for the reader but it is also necessary for the broader academic discourse, and the book goes some way to exposing some of the key tensions emergent in this research field. Many researchers of the Third Sector and its constituent organisations are finding fertile ground in the ‘critical’ vein. In this book, we find this illuminated by sections concerning Angles, Identity, Accountability and Hybridity. Each chapter within these broad domains has a point–counter-point construction, followed as they are by a commentary (written by a fellow contributor). This structure works nicely in making the text much more like a conversation between the contributors and is a novel way of fitting in with the theme of the Book Series.
Helen Haugh and Ana Maria Peredo kick the first section off with a chapter examining discursive narratives within the context of the development of the Community Interest Company in the United Kingdom. This very interesting subject matter, using a contemporaneous methodology in studying such phenomena, leads us to question the political grounds for institutionalising new forms or structures applied to Third Sector Organisations (TSOs), specifically in this case, social enterprises. They conclude by suggesting that time will allow critical observers the chance to properly interrogate the origins, rationale and performance of these developments.
In Section 2, Anders la Cour and Holger Hǿjlund offer an analysis of the development of a ‘third-order system’ in Denmark. In so doing, they utilise the work of Niklas Luhmann and Gunther Teubner (via Systems Theory) to expose how this system has been ‘constructed’ within an existing welfare state. Such research is incredibly useful because it exposes the macro-level mechanisms of changes in the public welfare state. Their historical account of voluntarism in Denmark provides a convincing backdrop for the development and emergence of a combined third-order system, and they note that this outcome was not the result of government interest alone. Moreover, they contend that a number of ‘social systems’ converged at key times to facilitate change, which is couched in terms of a roughly coordinated communicative process. They conclude by posing questions of this third-order system, and of particular note is the discussion on how the second-order systems strategise their involvement (or perhaps collaboration) with the third.
Accountability is the theme of Section 3, and Richard Hull takes the illustrative case of community-owned broadband to show that even relatively humble community organisations can be subject to the influence of political power. In his auto-ethnographic study, Hull describes the creation of a community cooperative that, over the period of several years, suffered several mishaps that he interprets as ‘elite patronage’. Thus, in terms of accountability, the misconduct, as he describes, is conceived as a collective response to clientelism and is symptomatic, therefore, of issues already raised about the uncomfortable fits between the state and market.
The final section concludes with chapters concerned with Hybridity, and Marlene Le Ber and Oana Branzei examine business model innovation using a feminist analysis of a historical case study. The innovations they focus on are those shown via Goodwill Industries International (GII), and they explain that such innovations can assist in tackling three core social problems: marginalisation, co-optation and subordination. They situate this claim on the premise that such research sits between the critical management agenda and mainstream business research. The case analysis shows not only that core social problems can be alleviated though innovation driven by hybridity, but also a complimentary approach can manage these multiple issues effectively. In their chapter, the authors also expose the tension in this kind of research where problems are either over- or under-problematised.
In summary, this book provides a useful addition to the growing critical literature on the Third Sector and their constituent organisations. Many of the chapters latch on to current or emergent issues in the field and offer a much needed international perspective that is sometimes lacking in Third Sector research originating in the United Kingdom. As such, the approach followed in convening the contributions of this book is novel and rather refreshing. Furthermore, they add helpfully to the ongoing conversations between academics, practitioners and policy makers in developing a more rounded critique.