Recycling bins, garbage cans or think tanks? Three myths regarding policy analysis institutes

The phrase 'think tank' has become ubiquitous – overworked and underspecified – in the political lexicon. It is entrenched in scholarly discussions of public policy as well as in the 'policy wonk' of journalists, lobbyists and spin-doctors. This does not mean that there is an agreed definition of think tank or consensual understanding of their roles and functions. Nevertheless, the majority of organizations with this label undertake policy research of some kind. The idea of think tanks as a research communication 'bridge' presupposes that there are discernible boundaries between (social) science and policy. This paper will investigate some of these boundaries. The frontiers are not only organizational and legal; they also exist in how the 'public interest' is conceived by these bodies and their financiers. Moreover, the social interactions and exchanges involved in 'bridging', themselves muddy the conception of 'boundary', allowing for analysis to go beyond the dualism imposed in seeing science on one side of the bridge, and the state on the other, to address the complex relations between experts and public policy

Research Project as Boundary Object: negotiating the conceptual design of a tool for International Development

This paper reflects on the relationship between who one designs for and what one designs in the unstructured space of designing for political change; in particular, for supporting “International Development” with ICT. We look at an interdisciplinary research project with goals and funding, but no clearly defined beneficiary group at start, and how amorphousness contributed to impact. The reported project researched a bridging tool to connect producers with consumers across global contexts and show players in the supply chain and their circumstances. We explore how both the nature of the research and the tool’s function became contested as work progressed. To tell this tale, we invoke the idea of boundary objects and the value of tacking back and forth between elastic meanings of the project’s artefacts and processes. We examine the project’s role in India, Chile and other arenas to draw out ways that it functioned as a catalyst and how absence of committed design choices acted as an unexpected strength in reaching its goals

Bridging knowledge to the market: an innovative approach for an innovative development

We live in a world of constant development, growth, innovation and changing needs and nonetheless cultural habits. How to sustain this constant change and how to adapt to globalisation, technological change and constant creativity and innovativeness of key human resources inside larger corporations as well as knowledge institutions is answering the concept of corporate entrepreneurship, new ventures and academic spin-off creation. Article will show the trend in the field of new venture and academic spin-off creation, involving human and social capital as key success factors. Barriers and innovative solutions will be presented on how to overcome the issue of lacking cooperation between academia and industry. Relevant best practices and experiences will be presented to be discussed as opportunities that can find the place in the already existing strengths of Slovenia and its entrepreneurial development and regional growthAcademic spin-off, Early-Stage Financing, Knowledge-Intensive Regions, Knowledge-Intensive Companies, new venture

The Emerging Role of Universities in Collective Impact Initiatives for Community Benefit

Universities are increasing their efforts to more clearly demonstrate their social value. This article illustrates how higher education administrators can incorporate collective impact partnerships in their community benefit strategies. The article explores two of the more familiar paradigms for community benefit—community engagement and anchor institution. Collective impact principles and practices are then presented. Finally, a case study provides a tangible example of how one university’s role in a collective impact initiative transitioned in response to the community. We end the article with ten takeaways and an invitation for higher education administrators to identify their own learning and action steps that can help shift focus from proving to improving their institution’s value to the community

Transnational Philanthropy, Policy Transfer Networks and the Open Society Institute

This paper avoids assumptions that civil society is an entirely separate and distinguishable domain from states and emergent forms of transnational authority. Focusing on the 'soft' ideational and normative policy transfer undermines notions of clear cut boundaries between an independent philanthropic body in civil society and highlights the intermeshing and mutual engagement that comes with networks, coalitions, joint funding, partnerships and common policy dialogues

Private philanthropy or policy transfer? The transnational norms of the Open Society Institute

The Open Society Institute (OSI) is a private operating and grant-making foundation that serves as the hub of the Soros Foundations Network, a group of autonomous national foundations around the world. OSI is a mechanism for the international diffusion of expertise and ‘best practices’ to post-communist countries and other democratising nations. Focusing on the ‘soft’ ideational and normative policy transfer, the article highlights the engagement in governance that comes with OSI transnational policy partnerships

Sustainable funding for the Welsh rural voluntary sector: issues of networks, legitimacy and power

Although the global economic downturn lends urgency to issues of financial sustainability in the voluntary sector, the issue is not new. There is an emerging consensus that voluntary organisations need to pursue financial sustainability through trading and social enterprise activities, government contracts, and a wider grants base. There have been some prominent success stories emerging over the last decade (e.g. Shore 2001, NCVO 2009, Age Concern 2009). This paper however, questions the extent to which these funding strategies may be pursued successfully by rural organisations. There are some significant barriers that remain unacknowledged by those who advocate such approaches. The authors undertook evaluation work for Sustainable Funding Cymru a project sponsored by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action that aimed to develop the funding capacity of voluntary organisations in Wales. Data for this paper derives from case studies, interviews and a focus group of participants in the project who came from voluntary sector charities, nonprofit organisations and social enterprises that deliver a wide range of social and community services. A substantial number of these serve rural communities. A Unique Context The sustainable funding of the Welsh voluntary sector (and especially its rural areas) is set within three important aspects of its contemporary policy context. Firstly, Wales achieved a degree of independence from the centralised UK state in 1997 and established a separate legislature. The enabling legislation required the new government to partner representatives of the voluntary sector to design and implement policy (OPSI 1998). What has emerged, however, is a set of institutional arrangements that focuses more on representative governance than on service delivery partnerships (Entwistle, 2006). Local public authorities remain the primary service providers for local communities although there is a certain amount of contracting out as in England (Bahle 2003). Secondly, whilst traditional funding sources for the voluntary sector have come from donations and individual giving (NCVO 2009), the current trend is toward public sector funding, which is administered centrally. Additionally, Wales has received some £3 billion in development funding from the European Union (EU), which is set to expire in 2013. This that helping voluntary organisations to prepare for post-EU funding is a priority. There are indications that the sector in Wales fares less well compared to other parts of the UK and that it is more dependent on government sources (local, national or EU). These account for nearly 45% of the current funding of the Welsh voluntary sector (National Assembly for Wales, 2008compared with 36% for the entire UK (including Wales) (NCVO, 2009). Thirdly, rural policy in Wales must be viewed in the context of a changing rural economic landscape. Much of Wales is relatively isolated and poorly served by public transport. It has suffered the devastation of its traditional industries. The decline of the coal and steel industries in particular has brought severe hardship to many communities (Chaney 2002). Thus emerging from the evaluation data and a review of the institutional arrangements derived from political-historical context, is a picture of critical challenges and issues for Welsh rural organisations related to the organisation and their representative actors. Developing Theoretical Linkages In order to gain resources, rural voluntary organisations must engage with some highly complex network relationships. They need to interact both vertically within a mandated set of institutional relations and cultivate horizontal relationships both within their own sector and the public sector to be financially sustainable (Entwistle, 2006). Benson (1975) suggests that ways in which organisations manage relationships both this internal network and with their external linkages will impact on their ability to achieve legitimacy and obtain resources. In Wales these partnerships are proving difficult to implement. Negotiating the fierce competition for public service contracts and strong institutional arrangements for local partnerships make it difficult for rural organisations to achieve the legitimacy and power needed to move beyond the established funding resources (Benson 1975). The paper suggests that in the competition for funding, rural organisations in Wales encounter a number of difficulties. Being embedded in their communities means they are constrained by geography. They are unable to compete with larger UK-wide agencies who have more freedom about where they operate. Also their networks become blocked as they are unable to overcome particularistic local power politics. They lack the people, the organisational capacity and infrastructure to identify, mobilise and secure funding. We suggest that national policies often ignore these rural realities and therefore urge strategies for funding sustainability that are very difficult to achieve for the majority of organisations. References Age Concern (2009) Products and Services website http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/all_products.asp Bahle, T. (2003). The changing institutionalization of social services in England and Wales, France and Germany: Is the welfare state on the retreat? Journal of European Social Policy, 13 (1), 5-20. Benson, J.K (1975), "The interorganizational network as a political economy", Administrative Science Quarterly, 20, 229-49. Chaney, P. (2002). Social capital and the participation of marginalized groups in government: A study of the statutory partnership between the third sector and devolved government in Wales. Public Policy and Administration, 17 (4), 20-38. Entwistle, T (2006). The distinctiveness of the Welsh partnership agenda. International Journal of Public Service Management, 19 (3), 228-237. Keating, M, & Stevenson, L (2006). Rural policy in Scotland after devolution. Regional Studies, 40.3, 397-407. Murdoch, J. (2000). Networks – a new paradigm of rural development. Journal of Rural Studies, 16, 407-419. National Assembly for Wales, Communities and Culture Committee (May 2008). The funding of voluntary sector organisations in Wales. Cardiff, Wales: Author. National Council for Voluntary Organisations (2009). The UK civil society almanac 2009: Executive Summary. London, England: Author. National Council for Voluntary Organisations (2009), Sustainable Funding Project Case studies http://www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/sfp/?id=2102 Office for Public Sector Information (1998) Government of Wales Act, London OPSI http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/ukpga_19980038_en_1 Shore, B. (2001) The Cathedral Within, Random House, New Yor