"Civil Society and Social Capital in Australia and New Zealand"
Co-authored with Mark Lyons. Chapter in Helmut Anheier & Stefan Toepler(2009). International Encyclopedia of Civil Society. Springer Reference: New York.
An overview of civil society organisations and the concepts of 'civil society' and 'social capital' in Australian and... more An overview of civil society organisations and the concepts of 'civil society' and 'social capital' in Australian and New Zealand research, politics and wider usage. Similarities and differences between the two countries are noted, and basic descriptive data are also provided on the size and scope of civil society organisations in the two countries, along with some indicators of citizen engagement.
Neither Mendicants nor Deal-makers: Contracting, government funding and voluntary organisations
New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, Wellington. (August 1995)
What is happening to government funding of voluntary organisations in Aotearoa/New Zealand? Where is it heading? What... more What is happening to government funding of voluntary organisations in Aotearoa/New Zealand? Where is it heading? What does it mean for government, for voluntary organisations,and for their clients and the communities they serve?
Dangerous Accountabilities: Remaking Voluntary Organisations in Someone Else's Image
Paper delivered at 29th Annual ARNOVA Conference, New Orleans, Nov 2000. (Association for Research on Nonprofit Organisations & Voluntary Action. www.arnova.org)
Increased accountability is often assumed to only be desirable for non-profit and voluntary organisations. This papers... more Increased accountability is often assumed to only be desirable for non-profit and voluntary organisations. This papers outlines some of the risks and dangers from externally imposed, and especially, 'classic' (legalistic) accountability arrangements found in contracting. In particular, a typology of 'funder capture' risks is developed. Rather than advocating a vacuum in responsibility, however, the Social Audit tool (developed by the New Economics Foundation) is analysed for the opportunities it presents.
The system versus the street: Employment and contracting in the international welfare-to-work industry
by Ian Greer
co-authored with Mark Stuart and Ian Greenwood, working paper
'Activating' the jobless – bringing them into or closer to paid work – has become a government-funded industry. What... more 'Activating' the jobless – bringing them into or closer to paid work – has become a government-funded industry. What are the dynamics of employment relations in this sector, constituted as a mixed market of non-profit, for-profit, and public sector bodies? Drawing on in-depth qualitative research in the UK and Germany, we argue that there is a tension between two levels of bureaucracy: system-level policymaking and planning and street-level service provision. This tension creates varying interorganizational contracting arrangements, which shape the institutional regulation of work. Under ‘marketized’ contracting – i.e. relatively short-term, price-based, standardized, and open to many competitors – frameworks of collective bargaining and worker representation are relatively difficult to apply, leading in extreme cases to a low-wage precarious pattern of employment relations.
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Selected as one of the winners of the Hastings Center Report's
Young Scholar Essay Contest
Published in the Hastings Center Report 41, no. 3 (2011): 19-21
What issues should bioethics be looking at in the next forty years? Rather than take on new issues, I believe... more What issues should bioethics be looking at in the next forty years? Rather than take on new issues, I believe bioethicists should rethink our approach to bioethical topics more generally. Doing so will require refashioning the field itself, but such a reinvention is the only way we can help bioethics live up to its initial ideals and be relevant to our society. The problem is the way we have framed our approaches to the field’s key topics. We have been obsessed with questions of abortion, euthanasia, stem cell research, and the like. But the very framing of these issues in bioethical discourse can obscure the underlying forces that create the problems.

