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Introduction
Skills and Expertise
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October 2014 - June 2017
Publications
Publications (154)
In nonprofit literature, there is evidence that a more relative dependence on public funding tends to result in nonprofits relying more heavily on insider/cooperative rather than outsider/confrontational advocacy. This led some researchers to believe that there is a resource imbalance between nonprofits and governments while others were convinced o...
The aim of this scoping literature review is to conceptualize Policy Advocacy Effectiveness (PAE) within the sphere of nonprofit advocacy, responding to recent calls for research on NPO advocacy outcomes. We focus our analysis on the criteria and indicators used in empirical studies to measure NPO-driven PAE. Our findings identify five main categor...
This study investigates how policy advocacy strategies employed by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) affect the willingness of policymakers to act upon policy inputs. In a 2 × 2 full-factorial research experiment, we presented 706 Flemish municipal policymakers with four realistic scenarios describing an advocacy campaign of a local welfare nonprofit....
Policy and sociocultural advocacy are still entrenched within their disciplinary silos. This makes that a lot of research is missing out on the complete picture of nonprofits’ social change efforts. Moreover, this also relates to inconsistencies (i.e., determinants) and ambiguities (i.e., tactics) that are characteristic of the current ‘morass’ in...
NPOs becoming businesslike is a contested issue. Some understand the adoption of businesslike practices by NPOs as a case of adopting rational myths through institutional isomorphism and thus potentially dangerous for NPOs' ability to fulfill their unique societal roles. Others are more optimistic, arguing that technical rationality is possible in...
Veel non-profitorganisaties in Vlaanderen worden gesubsidieerd door de overheid. Om te controleren of publiek geld 'goed' besteed wordt, vraagt de overheid aan deze organisaties om op geregelde basis te rapporteren over hun prestaties. Waar critici deze dynamiek reduceren tot een bureaucratische oefening die tijd wegneemt van de kernactiviteiten, s...
The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need to consider multiple and often novel perspectives on contemporary policymaking in the context of technically complex, ambiguous, and large-scale crises. In this article, we focus on exploring a territory that remains relatively unchartered on a large scale, namely the relationship between economic inequ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward myriad challenges to public policy, central of which is understanding the different contextual factors that can influence the effectiveness of policy responses across different systems. In this article, we explore how trust in government can influence the ability of COVID-19 policy responses to curb excess...
This article presents the results of a research project involving 10 people with intellectual disabilities concerning their idea of “a good life” in a residential care setting, within a context of personal budgets. We introduce the capability approach as a framework for focusing on the opportunities personal budgets offer for people with intellectu...
Both in practice and in academia, nonprofit commercialization is a highly debated topic. Conditions under which NPOs decide to commercialize can vary greatly, and adding to the complexity, commercialization seems to produce equivocal effects. In this chapter, we take stock of the literature by discussing the key drivers and effects associated with...
Collaborative governance (CG) refers to a mode of policy and service delivery that shifts away from government-or market-centric settings to a setting in which public, private nonprofit, and private business actors are jointly involved in and accountable for policymaking and service delivery to create public value that could otherwise not be achiev...
Individual funding schemes are increasingly implemented to organize public welfare services and can be considered as a prime example of the marketization of social care. Clients receive a budget and can "shop" on the welfare market. Current knowledge about the impact of individual funding schemes on choice opportunities for people with an intellect...
Although the non-profit marketization literature argues that governments' performance-based accountability demands can hinder non-profit organizational performance, rational planning literature suggests a more positive yet indirect impact. To unravel the mechanisms at play for those steering their organization, we investigate (1) if performance-bas...
Although the non-profit marketization literature argues that governments’ performance-based accountability demands can hinder non-profit organizational performance, the rational planning literature suggests a more positive yet indirect impact. To unravel the mechanisms at play for those steering their organization, we investigate (1) if performance...
Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) hybridizing toward the market domain by adopting business practices has sparked an ever-growing debate. There is research showing a rather positive effect on organizational legitimacy. However, considering the literature discussing other performance dimensions (e.g. social effectiveness), this trend is argued to erode...
Background: This paper presents the findings from a qualitative research project that explored what ten people with intellectual disabilities who receive care and support in a residential care facility deem valuable for living a good life and what the opportunity to manage resources for care and support themselves means to them.
Method: With the us...
Dans cet article, nous analysons les différents rôles joués par les professionnels de terrain lors du processus de création de valeur publique dans le cadre d’un projet de développement communautaire conduit sur le mode de la coproduction. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à la manière dont des professionnels de terrain motivés associent différe...
The care for disabled people in Flanders is currently undergoing a major social policy reform under the introduction of a personal budget scheme. Disability services in Flanders are explicitly expected to develop a demand-driven provision of care services. This transition stems from the urge for autonomy and self-determination of disabled people an...
Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are increasingly called upon to demonstrate and measure the effectiveness and efficiency of their work. Effectiveness can be defined as the ratio between the objectives an organization sets and the outcomes that are the result of its efforts, while efficiency can be defined as the ratio between organizational inputs a...
Resource competition is assumed to encourage commercial behaviour by publicly funded nonprofit organizations (NPOs). However, this widespread assumption falls short as empirical findings remain equivocal. In this study, we theorize that non-profit commercialism can indeed emerge from resource deficits but also from institutional pressures and organ...
In the literature, conceptually one can distinguish between different types or kinds of goods and services. Anheier (2014: 199) makes the distinction between public (or collective) goods, quasipublic goods, and private goods. A certain good or service can be attributed to one of these types based on the criteria of “excludability” (preventing peopl...
If the COVID-19 pandemic has already taught us anything, it is that policymakers, experts and public managers need to be capable of interpreting comparative data on their government’s performance in a meaningful way. Simultaneously, they are confronted with different data sources (and measurements) surrounding COVID-19 without necessarily having th...
If the COVID-19 pandemic has already taught us anything, it is that policymakers, experts and public managers need to be capable of interpreting comparative data on their government’s performance in a meaningful way. Simultaneously, they are confronted with different data sources (and measurements) surrounding COVID-19 without necessarily having th...
Personal budget schemes for people with disabilities are imbued with a conception of autonomous and rational individuals. The policy objective to enlarge people’s opportunities conflicts with the presumed capacity of cognitive rationality. We present an analysis of 15 social work professionals’ reflections on the practical implementation of three p...
In deze working paper vragen de auteurs zich af of de introductie van het nieuwe maatwerkdecreet tot een sterke(re) NPM-achtige aansturing leidt van de sociale economie sector in Vlaanderen. Zien we een overheid die eenzijdig regelgeving oplegt die effectief leidt tot meer nadruk op competitie, efficiëntie en marktproductie?
The linkage function of political parties is put under pressure the last few decades (testified by increased electoral volatility and decline in party membership). As a result, it is assumed that citizens increasingly seek for other forms of participation, especially in their own neighborhood. These so-called ‘citizen initiatives’ are not organized...
Despite widespread concerns about nonprofit organizations becoming “business-like” by hybridizing toward the market sphere, systematic knowledge about the extent and coherency to which this phenomenon finds traction beyond the liberal welfare context remains largely absent to date. Based on survey data ( N = 496), this study addresses this lacuna f...
Neo-corporatist relations consist of a stabilized institutional exchange between government, civil society and other social spheres. Current research suggests a destabilization of this relationship by ongoing governance developments, especially through the competitive pressures of NPM-style reforms. This article presents survey research of 339 civi...
In nonprofit management literature, there is a debate about the effect of nonprofit-business hybridity on organizational legitimacy. This paper contributes to the discussion by using a broad conceptualization of nonprofit-business hybridity and a multi-stakeholder perspective. We compare two nonprofit organizations, which differ in their degree of...
A growing body of literature discusses the (dis)advantages of nonprofit organizations becoming commercial by engaging in the sale of organizational services and products. However, when explaining this phenomenon, scholars tend to focus on resource uncertainty, thereby disregarding the organizational ability to commercialize. Complementing resource...
This article deals with the different roles of the street-level professional in achieving public value in a co-productive community development project. The article focuses, in particular, on the question of how engaged street-level professionals combine different roles – as friend, leader, representative and mediator – in order to empower and incl...
The position of civil society is changing, as many traditional organizations have become dependent on governments and markets for financial resources. At the same time, new kinds of civil society are on the rise, in the shape of self-organization and social movements. These new players challenge the position both of government, of traditional civil...
In spite of the belief instilled by the New Public Management reforms that nonprofit organizations (NPOs) can benefit from more management, more measurement and more market practices, systematic knowledge on the organizational effects of NPOs incorporating business practices in their day‐to‐day functioning remains absent to date. This research note...
Co-production and co-creation occur when citizens participate actively in delivering and designing the services they receive. It has come increasingly onto the agenda of policymakers, as interest in citizen participation has more generally soared. Expectations are high and it is regarded as a possible solution to the public sector’s decreased legit...
The state and the reconstruction of civil society
The current relationship between the state and civil society in Europe is a curious and historically unique one. This is no longer a situation in which participation and association prepare citizens for the offices of the state; rather, it is the state urging a sometimes-reluctant citizenry to engag...
Civil Sciety Innovatifion Flanders (CSI Flanders) was een interuniversitair project tussen de UA, UGent en KULeuven dat tussen 2016-'19 de uitdagingen voor het Vlaamse middenveld in kaart heeft gebracht, en op zoek is gegaan naar vernieuwende praktijken die een antwoord bieden op deze uitdagingen.
Civil Sciety Innovatifion Flanders (CSI Flanders) was een interuniversitair project tussen de UA, UGent en KULeuven dat tussen 2016-'19 de uitdagingen voor het Vlaamse middenveld in kaart heeft gebracht, en op zoek is gegaan naar vernieuwende praktijken die een antwoord bieden op deze uitdagingen.
In order to deal with “wicked problems” like inequality and social exclusion, one needs the support of committed citizens (Brandsen et al. in Manufactured civil society: practices, principles and effects, Palgrave, London, 2014). A promising setting to examine to what extent this is the case is that of community development projects in derelict nei...
This study aims to explain citizens’ engagement in co-production activities in the domain of community safety. We use a multiple case study design by looking at neighbourhood watch schemes in Belgium and the Netherlands. We applied Q-methodology to map the opinions of citizens about their co-productive efforts, and to cluster these opinions into co...
Co-production is often considered a solution to improve service quality and production efficiency, yet research on the reasons why citizens participate in the creation and/or implementation of public services is still limited to specific sectors. In this article, we study the different citizens’ motivations discussed in the literature. We distingui...
This article explores how social workers deal with the ambiguity that arises from their ability to transform the private needs of individuals into issues of public concern. It is argued that the current shift towards joined-up working, which is epitomized by the creation of interorganizational networks, could encourage new opportunities for social...
Public sector challenges translate in more complex job demands that require individual innovation. In order to deal with these demands, many public organizations have implemented employee performance management. In a multilevel study, we examine when employee performance management affects individual innovation. We contribute by focusing on consist...
Buurtinformatienetwerken (BIN) zijn een belangrijk voorbeeld van coproductie van publieke diensten, in casu veiligheid in de buurt. Door middel van een bevraging verzamelden we kwantitatieve data over de perceptie die leden van BIN hebben over de meerwaarde van hun vrijwilligerswerk als coproducent (N=394). Hoewel 'kostenbesparing', 'kwaliteit van...
It has been repeatedly stated that the topic of network effectiveness has often been neglected. This has led to a situation of ‘network euphoria’ amongst practitioners and policymakers with regard to the creation of networks as a means to (re-)organize welfare provision. Starting from a case study of networks for welfare provision in two Belgian ci...
This article deals with the tendency within the field of social work practice to create inter-organisational networks for
welfare provision. We highlight the opportunities that then arise for social work to tackle social exclusion, and to perform
its mediating role between the public sphere of government and the private sphere of individuals and fa...
The current relationship between the state and civil society in Europe is a curious and historically unique one. This is no longer a situation in which participation and association prepare citizens for the offices of the state; rather, it is the state urging a sometimes-reluctant citizenry to engage actively in civil society. This phenomenon stems...
In this article we discuss the extent to which service-delivering nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are committed to fulfill an expressive advocacy role, and we look at the advocacy strategies these organizations adopt. Furthermore, we question whether a close relationship with government compromises the NPOs’ willingness to perform these advocacy act...
We test a typology of public–private partnerships by using survey data on the relationship between non-profit organizations (NPOs) and Flemish local governments. We found that quite strong relations occur, but this is not a uniform picture: although most NPOs are not financially dependent on local government, there is a variation in NPO–local gover...
According to influential social theorists like Beck, Giddens and Bauman, modernity has entered a permanent state of turbulence, The solid, defined, territorialised, and state-bound concept of modern life is melting down. At the level of work and welfare, the traditional social ties (labour relations, community solidarity) become weaker and fragile....
Although mixed public–private provisions of welfare have always been a typical characteristic of continental welfare states, recent international scholarship has pointed to a historically new process of institutional hybridisation, with a more systematic intermingling of rationalities of the state, market and third sector within one and the same or...
Faced with an increasingly challenging environment, nonprofit organizations (NPOs) must behave innovatively and act in a result- or performance-oriented manner. In this article, we explore the extent to which NPOs behave innovatively (in their management and service delivery), and the factors that determine this innovative behaviour. We conducted o...
For governments within many modern welfare states it has become a key challenge to guarantee the quality and accessibility of social service provision to citizens. Under the third-party government in Belgium, this implied that far from producing the lion’s share of these services themselves, governments increasingly involved private nonprofit organ...
In this introductory article to the thematic issue, our aim is to discuss the state of the art in research on co-production of public services. We define co-production, for the purpose of this article rather narrowly, as the involvement of individual citizens and groups in public service delivery. We discuss the concept along three main research li...
Civil society is dead; hurrah for civil society! This simple statement describes the sociopolitical debate in many modern welfare states. Traditional forms of (ideologically or religiously driven) social organisation have gradually declined. Various drivers behind this development have been identified, notably individualisation and changing life pa...
In contemporary welfare states, governments increasingly rely on private actors for delivering public welfare services to citizens (Snavely & Desai, 2001; Salamon, Sokolowski et al., 2004; Anheier, 2005).1 Due to their grass-roots bottom-up nature and rather small scale of operation, non-profit organisations (NPOs) have become appealing partners fo...
Network
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