How actors move from primary agency to institutional agency: A conceptual framework and empirical application

This article contributes to the understanding of actors and agency in the theorization of institutional work. We analyse institutional work as a specific kind of social action that involves exercising institutional agency (with an articulate awareness of institutions) as opposed to primary agency (taking institutions for granted). We propose a conceptual framework for combining a view of actors, who have agency and may engage in institutional work, with a view of actors as socially constructed, in line with critical-realist ontology. Applying this framework to the empirical case of the Spanish social movement 15M, we examine how actors moved from having primary agency to having institutional agency and how organization mattered for this process. We find that organizing by experienced organizers, the founding of new organizations and prefigurative organization were of crucial importance for the increase in institutional agency

The spread of business-like approaches into the non-profit sector: Causes, consequences, and conclusions for organizing practice (Synopsis)

Abstract of the synopsis: This synopsis presents the research agenda of the habilitation, which centres on the spread of business-like approaches into the nonprofit sector. A theoretical contextualization of the research is given by discussing its relationship to institutional theory on rationalization. The connections between the contained publications are explained, which range from foundational work on the state of research and alternatives to being business-like, to causes for the spread of business-like approaches, to consequences and practical applications. The main research contributions (in particular the most important typologies, frameworks and propositions developed in the articles) are summarised and the research needs and practical implications are reflected on. It is concluded that the effects of business-like instruments depend on the way they are used. They can contribute to exacerbating problems of capitalism in ways that are often not intended by their users. Or they can be tools to support other kinds of social and economic change. The synopsis concludes with a formal assessment of the included publications according to the relevant habilitation guidelines

Methods for Classifying Nonprofit Organizations According to their Field of Activity: A Report on Semi-automated Methods Based on Text

There are various methods for classifying nonprofit organizations (NPOs) according to their field of activity. We report our experiences using two semi-automated methods based on textual data: rule-based classification and machine learning with curated keywords. We use those methods to classify Austrian nonprofit organizations based on the International Classification of Nonprofit Organizations. Those methods can provide a solution to the widespread research problem that quantitative data on the activities of NPOs are needed but not readily available from administrative data, long high-quality texts describing NPOs' activities are mostly unavailable, and human labor resources are limited. We find that in such a setting, rule-based classification performs about as well as manual human coding in terms of precision and sensitivity, while being much more labor-saving. Hence, we share our insights on how to efficiently implement such a rule-based approach. To address scholars with a background in data analytics as well as those without, we provide non-technical explanations and open-source sample code that is free to use and adapt

Corporate Governance in Non-Profit-Organisationen: Verständnisse und Entwicklungsperspektiven

Im Rahmen dieses Beitrags wird ein Einstieg in die Diskussion zum Thema Corporate Governance von NPO geliefert, indem ein Überblick über unterschiedliche wissenschaftliche und alltagspraktische Verständnisse von Governance gegeben wird. Wissenschaftliche Governanceverständnisse werden charakterisiert, indem die Hauptmerkmale des politikwissenschaftlichen, des betriebswirtschaftlichen und des soziologischen Zugangs zur Governance dargestellt werden. Alltagspraktische Governanceverständnisse werden anhand einer Typologie dargestellt, die von betriebswirtschaftlicher über familiäre, professionalistische und zivilgesellschaftliche bis hin zu basisdemokratischer Governance reicht. Abschließend werden Überlegungen zur Zukunft der Governance von NPO angestellt. Eine weitere Verbreitung des be-triebswirtschaftlichen Governance-Diskurses ist wahrscheinlich. Alternative Governance-Zugänge bleiben jedoch notwendige Gegenpole, die wohl in Nischen des Nonprofitsektors weiterbestehen werden

Social Impact Bonds and the Perils of Aligned Interests

Social impact bonds (SIBs) have been welcomed enthusiastically as a new funding tool for social innovation, yet also condemned as an instrument that neglects beneficiaries' and taxpayers' interests, opening profit opportunities in the field of social politics for smart private investors. We will shed a more analytical light on SIBs, assuming that, like any contract, SIBs try to align interests between partners with partly converging, partly diverging goals. Thus, it remains mainly a matter of negation, and non-profit social service providers as well as public agencies should avoid particular perils and pitfalls

In the Shadow of World Polity: Spatial Narratives of Civil Society Organizations

World Polity Theory has found broad acceptance as an explanation for the worldwide spread of rationalist ideas and modern models of actorhood in and through civil society. This theory states that modern actorhood is about the representation of legitimated principals, which in many cases are abstract principles such as global notions of human rights or environmental sustainability. In our study, we add on to this by analyzing spatial narratives of CSOs located in Austria's largest metropolitan region. We identify six narratives: lococentric, home/alien, world polity, world society, glocalization and earthly/metaphysical world. We find that these narratives form a spectrum whose focus ranges from the local to the global to the metaphysical level. World polity theory is able to explain the middle of this spectrum, but has been insensitive to its outer sections, which in the case of the lococentric narrative make up a major part of what is going on in civil society. We thus show that there are remarkably large spaces for the development of CSO identities that are hardly affected by global isomorphism

Nonprofit Organizations Becoming Business-Like: A Systematic Review

(no abstract available

Intermediary Organisations and the Hegemonisation of Social Entrepreneurship: Fantasmatic Articulations, Constitutive Quiescences, and Moments of Indeterminacy

The rapid rise of alternative organisations such as social enterprises is largely due to the promotional activities of intermediary organisations. So far, little is known about the affective nature of such activities. The present article thus investigates how intermediary organisations make social entrepreneurship palatable for a broader audience by establishing it as an object of desire. Drawing on affect-oriented extensions of Laclau and Mouffe's poststructuralist theory, hegemonisation is suggested as a way of understanding how social entrepreneurship is articulated through a complementary process of signification and affective investment. Specifically, by examining Austrian intermediaries, we show how social entrepreneurship is endowed with a sense of affective thrust that is based on three interlocking dynamics: the articulation of fantasies such as 'inclusive exclusiveness', 'large-scale social change' and 'pragmatic solutions'; the repression of anxiety-provoking and contentious issues (constitutive quiescences); as well as the use of conceptually vague, floating signifiers (moments of indeterminacy). Demonstrating that the hegemonisation of social entrepreneurship involves articulating certain issues whilst, at the same time, omitting others, or rendering them elusive, the article invites a counter-hegemonic critique of social entrepreneurship, and, on a more general level, of alternative forms of organising, that embraces affect as a driving force of change, while simultaneously affirming the impossibility of harmony and wholeness