Change in the making: A Dynamic and Relational Analysis of Voluntary Action, 2010-2020

Change in the Making is a study of change in voluntary action over time. Between 2016 and 2020 it investigated the ways in which change is negotiated, created and contested by a range of different stakeholders in diverse third sector settings. It focused attention on third sector organisations as contested spaces of collective action, involving the interplay of multiple stakeholders all with different interests. The study built on the Third Sector Research Centre's ESRC-funded 'Real Times' programme of research with third sector organisations carried out between 2010 and 2014. Change in the Making focused on four case studies of voluntary action, selected from the 15 included in the original Real Times study to provide a contrasting set of organisational scales, structures, models of engagement, and trajectories of change. The dataset includes transcripts from 121 in-depth interviews from across the four case study organisations, mostly with individuals but also a small number of paired and group interviews. Interviews were conducted with several groups of respondents associated with each of the case studies: trustees, staff (management and frontline), volunteers, service users, external partners (e.g. other organisations working in similar fields in the local area, funders etc), and national stakeholders (e.g. representatives from umbrella bodies relevant to the case studies). Sampling was purposive, with individual respondents identified through working with each of the case studies over time to identify key individuals, from each of the categories of respondents. The interviews were nearly all completed face to face, and lasted on average 60 minutes, although the length varied considerably. For the Change in the Making phase of interviews, two researchers – Angela Ellis Paine (AEP) and Rob Macmillan (RM) - were present for many of the interviews, with one of them leading the interview and the other joining in as appropriate. The interviews were semi-structured, guided by a template topic guide that was adapted for individual respondents, and evolved over time as the research progressed. A copy is provided within the dataset.