Portrait of the Social Entrepreneur: Statistical Evidence from a US Panel

Social entrepreneurship is an increasingly important concept in the study of voluntary and nonprofit organizations. In spite of the growing recognition of this concept, little is known about what individual characteristics might describe or explain who in society is likely to be (or become) a social entrepreneur. This preliminary study empirically addresses this question using data from a United States online panel. Our results suggest that social entrepreneurs are likely to be female, non-white, younger, and college-educated individuals with some business experience and who live in big cities. Social entrepreneurs also tend to have more social capital, as measured by their activity in clubs and organizations other than work, and they are more likely to be happy, interested in politics, extroverted, giving (to charity), and liberal ideologically. Although exploratory, these findings help describe the social entrepreneur and suggest ways in which this important actor in civil society can be better identified, understood, and perhaps cultivated.     

From decentralization to integration: the development of social welfare services for disabled veterans in China

China's current social preferential treatment system for disabled veterans began in the war years and has developed during periods of peace. However, there are multiple barriers, such as decentralized cooperation between central and local governments, which prevent the state from providing effective welfare services. The establishment of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs can be seen as an effective attempt to resolve the decentralization of management, similar to relevant legislative work and establishing provincial-level institutions in local governments. This article focuses on how central and local governments attempt to break though the barriers to providing effective welfare services for disabled veterans in China and integrate decentralized responsibility to cooperate in the management system of welfare services for disabled veterans. The integration of welfare services and the rational use of social security as a platform can build a new mechanism of preferential treatment.     

Interest Groups and Social Movements: Self- or Public Interested? Insights from the Brazilian Third-Sector Literature

By definition, interest groups are seen as self-interested, that is, organizations established to pursue the self-interest of their members. As such, this plethora of self-interested actors has been seen largely as a negative thing, cluttering the policy process, creating unmanageable demands, and leading to iron triangles of interest group/legislative/bureaucratic networks geared toward funneling benefits to narrow groups. In contrast, social movements, nongovernmental organizations, and the like typically are seen as positive, democratizing players in public policy. This paper seeks to muddy both sides of this neat distinction by bringing the Brazilian third-sector literature and field research on scientific and professional associations in the states of Sergipe and Santa Catarina to bear on the question of the self- versus public-interested stance of third-sector groups. On the one hand, social movements can be just as self-interested as the more traditional interest groups. On the other, interest groups often act wholly in the public interest.     

Migration into big cities and small towns — an uneven process with limited need for multiculturalism

The following paper is based on preliminary research on the consequences of recent migration in Germany for the different administrative levels and especially for local governments. In the same way as there is no uniform immigration process on the one side, there is no single society or a single nation state in the sense of single actors on the other side who could relate to immigration as an integrated whole. Migration itself consists of heterogeneous migration strands moving on different lines into different cities and towns. And local governments are part of an internally highly differentiated political system. Modern welfare state organizations handle migration in the logic of their own processing. In order to understand the consequences of migration and the meaning of multiculturalism on the local level further research will have to take into account the position of local governments in this differentiated system.     

PRODUCTION COSTS, TRANSACTION COSTS, AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR CHOICE

Local governments that choose to externally produce a service can contract with other governments, for-profit firms, or nonprofit organizations. This contractor choice is modeled as one in which the local government decision maker minimizes service delivery costs, both production and transaction costs, subject to political and fiscal constraints. The model is estimated using data on three frequently contracted health services obtained from a national survey of local government service delivery arrangements. The empirical analysis reveals the importance of both production and transaction costs, as well as the choice set of available suppliers, to contractor choice.     

From Welfare to Work? Social Policy for Disabled People of Working Age in the United Kingdom in the 1990s

Disabled people of working age have been at the heart of recent welfare restructuring in the United Kingdom, but this has received little attention from mainstream social policy analysis. Both Conservative and Labour governments have introduced measures to promote labour force participation among disabled people, whilst discouraging dependence on welfare benefits. Whilst this new approach has been justified in terms of reducing poverty, its underlying imperatives are essentially inegalitarian. The welfare reform process has been driven by a number of official concerns including a perception of unsustainable fiscal pressures and a belief that perverse incentives in the social security benefit system have undermined economic efficiency. Moreover, it has been legitimated by an ideology of citizenship, which has shifted the moral responsibility for needs satisfaction away from the state to the individual. The paper concludes by identifying a better approach to welfare reform for disabled people of working age.     

The concept of social care and the analysis of contemporary welfare states

Care is now a widely-used concept in welfare state research, firmly established in the literature by feminist analysis. We believe that the concept as it has been used and developed to date has limitations that have hampered its development as a general category of welfare state analysis. In essence we argue that the political economy aspects of the concept have remained underdeveloped. The main purpose of this article is to elaborate a care-centered concept--which we name social care--that countenances and develops care as an activity and set of relations lying at the intersection of state, market and family (and voluntary sector) relations. We are especially concerned to examine what the concept of social care can tell us about welfare state variation and welfare state change and development. The article works systematically through these themes, beginning with a brief historical sketch of the concept of care and then moving on to elaborate the analytic potential of the concept of social care. In the latter regard we make the case that it can lead to a more encompassing analysis, helping to overcome especially the fragmentation in existing scholarship between the cash and service dimensions of the welfare state and the relative neglect of the latter. The concept of social care serves to shift the centre of analysis from specific policy domains so that instead of focusing on cash benefits or services in isolation it becomes possible to consider them as part of a broader set of inter-relating elements. In this and other regards, the concept has the potential to say something new about welfare states.     

From personal troubles to public compassion: charity shop volunteering as a practice of care

This article analyses charity shop volunteering in the UK as an instance of individual commitment towards organizations devoted to combating suffering. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews focused on motives, the paper argues that some respondents found in volunteer work a way of regaining meaning, structure and belonging after experiences of social dislocation such as retirement and bereavement. The transition from social dislocation to ontological security via volunteering illustrates the way in which ‘the social’ – as expressed in fellowship, laughter, work, organizations and institutions – moderates charitable practice. From this perspective, volunteering appears as a relational, processual and affective practice of care; and as a sympathy catalyst – an institution that facilitates interpersonal sympathy exchanges and support for compassionate goals. The paper endorses a view of human subjectivity which takes seriously both human vulnerability and resilience – victimhood and agency – as well as the relevance of suffering and flourishing for social action. In so doing, the paper sheds light on the link between individual biographies and the institutionalized efforts to alleviate strangers' suffering that Natan Sznaider has termed ‘public compassion’.     

Nonprofit Comparative Research: Recent Agendas and Future Trends

Comparative research on nonprofit organizations (NPOs) has been a prominent approach for advancing our understanding of these organizations. This article identifies the primary drivers that shape the NPO comparative research agenda and explores new research trends. Based on a systematic literature review, nine definitional aspects and ten impulses are identified as drivers of NPO research. This article conducts a correspondence analysis to study the relationships between the definitional aspects and impulses that are discussed in 111 articles that were published in philanthropic and third-sector journals in the period January 2001–January 2015. Based on our results, we suggest three new clusters for future comparative research: investment and growth, participation and social impact, and social cohesion and civil society.     

Careers in the third sector

The article explores the concept of career as it relates to third-sector employees. The results of a survey of third-sector employees in New South Wales, Australia, suggests a distinctive pattern of work orientation involving a preference for work that is both personally challenging and socially meaningful. Pragmatic considerations are also important for women with young children. These and other findings suggest that the majority of third-sector employees pursue a career that more closely fits Driver's spiral career model rather than the conventional linear career model. It therefore behooves nonprofit employers to tailor the organizational reward system to the motivational needs of their employees if they hope to maximize worker satisfaction and effectiveness.     

The role of voluntary organizations in the care of the elderly in Norway

This paper describes the contributions of voluntary organizations to the provision of social services for the elderly in Norway. It presents data on the volume of social services provided by Norwegian voluntary organizations and discusses the recognition that the central government gives to such organizations, as well as the conditions for supporting voluntary organizations in the Norwegian welfare state. The analysis indicates the scope of the contributions made by these organizations in caring for older people. Though the size of contributions made by the voluntary organizations has been declining rapidly in recent years, the Norwegian government still recognizes their past contributions and the role they can play within the framework of the welfare state's social services for the aged.     

从美国收入分配调节看我国收入分配调节机制的完善

美国“占领华尔街”运动引发我们对美国收入分配制度的关注。我国应学习借鉴美国长期以来形成的相对适应市场经济要求的收入分配调节政策,在改革完善收入分配制度方面加强机制的顶层设计,着力在一次分配上,建立健全职工工资与经济基本同步增长、不同行业收入分配有效调节的机制等;在二次分配上,建立健全为中低收入者减支增收机制、财富分配调节机制等;在三次分配上,大力发展慈善和公益事业,以促进我国经济社会持续健康发展。     

Towards an integrated and synergized social policy: Concepts and strategies

In first reviewing the most recent trends of social policy in Western Europe, the present article argues that social policy is best conceived of as a plural action system that enhances the interactions between community care and intermediary welfare organizations and does this within the framework of a welfare state working as an Observation‐Diagnosis‐Guidance system. Social policies for the 1990s can be better understood, planned, and implemented if seen as a new way for steering social systems.     

PUBLIC–PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS FOR MATERNAL HEALTH IN AFRICA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS

ABSTRACT

The concept of public and private partnerships raises growing interest and hope from international development agencies, governments, and communities as an alternative strategy in social welfare delivery. Conceptualized as a strategy to build and capitalize on the tangible and intangible assets and resources endogenous to social organizations and communities, individually and collectively, this article embraces an asset-based approach to analyze the potency of such a framework in enhancing maternal health care delivery in developing countries such as Senegal and Mali. These countries face growing retrenchment of the state from social service delivery and scarcity of human and financial resources, which call for innovative approaches and sustainable solutions in addressing pervasive deficits in health service delivery. Drawing from empirical field research conducted in Senegal and Mali, this article examines the trend toward public–private partnerships and its gender impacts and critically analyzes the challenges and opportunities it offers conceptually and practically to address and improve equity in health care delivery, particularly safe motherhood and maternal health care delivery in developing countries.     

Marketing of Voluntary Organizations as Contract Providers of National and Local Government Welfare Services in the UK

Voluntary organisations have become major providers of numerous social welfare services that previously were supplied by the state. In Britain, between 35 and 40% of the average human services charity’s annual income now derives from government (predominantly local government) sources, meaning that the acquisition of fresh contracts to undertake government funded work, in conjunction with the maintenance of good relations with government funders vis-à-vis current assignments, is increasingly important for ensuring a human service charity’s financial survival. An organization that wishes to obtain new contracts and to keep government bodies satisfied with its present activities will need to market itself effectively. This empirical study examined two aspects of charity marketing relevant to this requirement: the extent to which voluntary organizations applied the principles of strategic account management (otherwise known as key account management) to their relations with government funders, and the organizational characteristics (passion and commitment, low wage costs, etc.) that they emphasized to government bodies when making bids. A number of organizational variables (e.g., mission rigidity, strategic intent, short term operational focus) were employed in regression analyses as possible determinants of: (i) the degree to which a charity used strategic account management; and (ii) the genres of the organizational characteristics that it accentuated when tendering for government funded work.

Standing up to complexity: researching moral panics in social work

Moral panics are central to social work policy and practice. Voluntary agencies and statutory bodies (including governments) create and sustain moral panics in order to raise awareness of, and win support for, their own understandings of social issues and problems. This is not a neutral enterprise; on the contrary, moral panics often have consequences that are negative, whether intended or unintended. Far from leading to greater social justice and a more equal society, they may reinforce stereotypes and lead to fearful, risk-averse practice. This paper discusses one such moral panic in 2013 that centred on the story of ‘Maria’, a Bulgarian Roma child living in Greece. The paper explores the meaning and use of the concept of moral panic before unpacking this case-study example in more detail. We argue that the moral panic over ‘Maria’ has much to tell us about ideas of welfare and protection, institutional racism and children and childhood, as well as the connections between ‘private troubles’ and ‘public issues’. We conclude that social work as a profession must stand up to complexity, and in doing so, be aware of its own role in relation to moral panics.     

The Polish Social Enterprise Sector Vis-à-Vis the Welfare Regime: Following on the Solidarity Movement?

This paper presents the development of the enterprise sector and the welfare regime in Poland, dominated by two opposing trends originating from the country’s recent history: remnants of the “Communist welfare state” and liberal tendencies that came after the political and economic transformation in 1989. The growing civil society that supplements a deficient welfare system finds its roots in the peaceful underground Solidarity movement of the 1980s which played a great role in liberating Poland. After the political turnover, the Solidarity’s mission-driven approach not only survived, but also helped shape Poland’s contemporary civil society. The outlined mechanisms seem to be significant for understanding the transformation of social economy and the welfare state concept in post-communist Europe. In our paper, we identify six mechanisms underlying the Solidarity movement, which, when subsequently implemented by social entrepreneurs, has guaranteed the success of their organizations. We will also characterize the current welfare state in Poland, as well as the role of social enterprises in filling the gaps and addressing the shortcomings of the welfare state. Several case studies will illustrate the latter.     

Ethnic Organizations and the Welfare State: The Impact of Social Welfare Programs on the Formation of Indochinese Refugee Associations

The expansion of the welfare state during the 20th century has altered the conditions shaping the formation of ethnic organizations. Drawing upon research in the divergent fields of social policy, immigrant communities, and social movements, this article argues that social welfare programs promote or suppress ethnic organizations depending on how they affect an ethnic community's institutional completeness. This welfare state channeling theory is contrasted with ethnic competition and resource mobilization explanations for the formation of ethnic organizations. An analysis of 800 Indochinese refugee associations finds that public assistance has no effect on the prevalence of these organizations, but that privatization of federal social service expenditures does, thus partially supporting the welfare state channeling theory.     

The power of social capital: Adapting Bourdieu to the study of public relations

All organizations have relationships with their environments that can be described as their social capital. The development of this social capital is a crucial public relations activity. Taking a cue from the late French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, social capital can also be seen as one of the several resources used to obtain or maintain positions of power. Bourdieu, however, was quite vague about how social capital should be analyzed and did not write about organizations per se. Accordingly, I will discuss and elaborate on the social capital concept by drawing from the work of Nan Lin (2002).     

The sociopolitical origins of the American Legion

The American Legion was one of the most politically consequential organizations in the twentieth-century United States. It was a local bedrock of anti-communism in two post-war red scares and throughout the cold war. It also built a lavish and cross-nationally unique welfare state for American veterans. In this article, I examine the origins of the American Legion and demonstrate that it was organized by rentier capitalists acting in their intraclass and interclass interests. Most importantly, the Legion was an organization that fought the “battle over class” by denying the importance of class as a social concept and proposing “Americanism” as an alternative. I also argue that the Legion’s extreme anti-communism combined with its dedication to welfare provision for American veterans altered the course of American welfare state development.