REWP Annual Symposium 2017
Wednesday, 7 June 2017
Armstrong Building, Reception Room G.69 & G.70
Timetable
01:00 Lunch
01:45 Professor Roy Suddaby
Private Philanthropic Foundations and Entrepreneurship: A Research Agenda
02:15 Ms Alison Gibson
Inequality and Privilege in UK Higher Education Fundraising
02:45 Ms Ruomei Yang
Events, Hospitality and Elite Philanthropic Networking in China and the United
Kingdom: A Comparative Study
03:15 Coffee Break
03:30 Dr Michael Price
From Cadbury to Kay: Intertextuality and The Evolving Discourse of Corporate
Governance Regulation in the UK
04:00 Professor Charles Harvey
Philanthropy, Enterprise and Society in the North East of England
04:30 Round-table Discussion
Abstracts
Private Philanthropic Foundations and Entrepreneurship: A Research Agenda
Professor Roy Suddaby
Considerable research has been devoted to understanding the process by which new organizational
forms emerge. But not all organizational innovation involves the de novo creation of a new
organization. We examine the case of private philanthropic foundations – an ancient organizational
form that has been adapted to contemporary demands. Foundations, as an organizational form, predate the nation-state, the corporation and the professional partnership. They are also an extremely
resilient organizational form – some Islamic waqfs, for example, claim a continuous history of over
five hundred years.
Recently, private philanthropic foundations have emerged as powerful agents of social change. They
represent significant accumulations of financial capital – the largest global foundations hold
endowments that exceed the GNP of many nation states. They are also an increasingly popular
organizational form – since 2013 the number of private foundations has increased by 35% and their
total assets have doubled (Foundation Centre, 2016). Most critically, foundations have become
global entrepreneurs with ambitious agendas for social change using tactics that often circumvent
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REWP Annual Symposium 2017
traditional organizational forms such as charities, traditional NGOs and government. One of the
consequences of the new global scale and scope of private foundations, which have historically been
privileged by low regulatory oversight, is that they appear to have even more autonomy and power
at the global level. Foundations are one of the most independent institutions in modern society.
Despite this we have little understanding of their history, governance structure and their normative
role in civil society. The purpose of this paper is to offer a theoretical overview and research agenda
for this ancient but dramatically repurposed organizational form.
Inequality and Privilege in UK Higher Education Fundraising
Ms Alison Gibson
Almost 25 years have elapsed since the 1992 Higher Education Acts massively expanded the field of
universities in the UK, with the intention of broadening access to higher education for UK students.
Over the same period, we have also seen the transformation of universities in accordance with
neoliberal principles. We use a Bourdieusian approach to analyse the evolution of the accumulated
wealth, privilege and fundraising ability of Higher Education Institutions in the UK, exposing for the
first time the true magnitude of inequality that has developed and persisted among Oxbridge, other
pre-1992 universities, and universities minted by the 1992 Acts. We argue that these inequalities are
the result of embedded and systemic privilege, and define a research agenda that will illuminate the
practices, logics, and structures that have been causative.
Events, Hospitality and Elite Philanthropic Networking in China and the United Kingdom: A
Comparative Study
Ms Ruomei Yang
There are two main problems with philanthropy as a solution to social problems arising from
widening inequality. First, philanthropy represents wealth donated on a discretionary basis.
Secondly, there exists a lack of real opportunities to deliver positive social change. This research
devotes attention to a small, yet significant elite group: philanthropic elites in China and the UK. By
examining high profile philanthropic events through the lens of in-depth case studies, the research
explores the role of these events, in facilitating networking and social capital formation amongst
elite actors.
From Cadbury to Kay: Intertextuality and the Evolving Discourse Of Corporate Governance
Regulation in the UK
Dr Michael Price
The UK has a system of self-regulation in respect of approaches to corporate governance which
represents a model that many other countries have sought to emulate. This paper reports on a
corpus of texts which have influenced the UK Corporate Governance Code between 1992 and 2012.
We observe perturbations tend to lead to the production of reports which present solutions to these
problems. We argue that despite these perturbations, the publications of these reports has caused
little substantive revision to the Combined Code and that this is illustrative of a more board process
whereby elite groups self-regulate to fend off challenge that would otherwise follow, thereby
protecting the legitimacy of the system itself.
This paper’s contribution is an analysis of the changing discourse of corporate governance reports
over time using a discourse historical approach (Wodak 2011) to the analysis. Through a progressive
discursive transition, from a popular to a technocratic discourse, arguments are deflated and heat is
dissipated from key perturbations through the publication of reports. It is argued that these reports
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are therefore a method of appeasing public opinion by strengthening rules within existing
frameworks, thereby preserving the power and wealth of the corporate elite to whom the texts are
directly applicable.
We suggest that micro discursively, there is a shift in focus from structures and procedures in early
texts to an increasing focus on individual behaviours, particularly in the period after 2007. The result
is to assign fault for key perturbations individually, rather than systemically. This is therefore partly
an interrogation of how ‘best practice’ is conceived of and conveyed over time, but it is also an
example of how a defined corpus of texts gives stability and permanence to the ideas of the authors
(Allen 2011).
Philanthropy, Enterprise and Society in the North East of England
Professor Charles Harvey
To what degree and in what ways has philanthropy served as vehicle for social change? How might
philanthropy help promote social renewal in areas blighted by de-industrialization? As a
geographically well delineated region with a long and diverse history that has suffered since the
1960s from industrial decline, the North East of England provides a rich setting for the exploration of
these questions, historically and contemporaneously. Our historical study exposes the religious and
historical roots of philanthropy and the continuing importance of past initiatives, when innovative
ideas were enacted through a combination of enterprise and philanthropy, to present day
organizations and institutions. Research, education, healthcare and numerous cultural organizations
all rest on philanthropic foundations, the earliest extant North East charitable trusts dating back to
the thirteenth century.
The role of philanthropy in society has changed markedly since the advent of the welfare state and
the centralization of power. But philanthropy never disappeared and arguably is of growing
importance as the boundaries of the state are eroded, particularly with respect to support for the
front line charities providing services for the disadvantaged. Our evidence, however, is mixed. We
define philanthropy as the voluntary gifting of resources from private wealth to promote charitable
causes, projects or organizations and a philanthropist as a person who voluntarily gifts resources
from private wealth to promote charitable causes, projects or organizations. By measuring
philanthropic income and accumulations of philanthropic capital more exactly than is usual, avoiding
double counting for example, we find that total income and endowments have grown, they remain
small relative to need. Research intensive universities and some cultural organizations continue to
be major beneficiaries of philanthropy, past and present, but by and large third sector organizations
are under nourished and lack the capacity to fulfil their missions. In the North East there are notable
examples of past and present generosity and initiative taking by philanthropic entrepreneurs, but, as
might be expected, a large part of total philanthropic income stems from London based national
charities and funding from philanthropic enterprises like the National Lottery and Children in Need,
which paradoxically glean the majority of their revenues from ordinary folk. We suggest that much
more needs to be done to put the excess resources of the rich to work in the urgent task of social
renewal in the North East.
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