Network structure, institutional frameworks, and social change : the case of nonprofits that support asylum seekers in Ireland

Abstract

The steep rise in the number of asylum seekers arriving in Ireland since the late 1990s has presented a novel set of challenges to the Republic’s nonprofit sector. Legal instruments and statutory policy that have developed since that time have created a particularly vulnerable population from this set of newcomers. The system of direct provision and dispersal, in combination with the trauma and hardship that is part and parcel of seeking international protection, creates a population with a diverse and at times extreme set of needs, which nonprofit organisations across the country seek to address. Coordination among the nonprofits that support asylums seekers is a necessary, but not trivial, undertaking. This field consists of a combination of new organisations and organisations that support asylum seekers as a part of the wider population. Their work towards social change, whether through service that supports asylum seekers individually or advocacy that addresses their needs and rights as a group, faces two major challenges. One the one hand, these organisations work in tandem with the state in service provision, while on the other hand, the state and its policies are their primary focus in advocating for change. Additionally, divergent stakeholder interests create tensions in the field. These challenges raise the question of how nonprofits in this field manage their conflicting social roles as well as the question of how they hope to change the very social context in which they work. Collaboration in the field creates opportunities to share information and resources as well as to create new ways of working to support asylum seekers. The social network structures and institutionalised meanings that condition collaboration shed light on how these relationships enable and constrain social change. Therefore, this thesis undertakes to answer the following question: How do collaborative relationships, particularly the social network structures and institutional frameworks that constitute them, enable and constrain social change in the field of nonprofits that support asylum seekers in Ireland? This thesis draws on existing social network theory and neo-institutional theory of organisations in order to illustrate the meso-level social order of network structure and institutionalised meaning that conditions social change and micro social interactions. From this vantage point, it is possible to observe the emergence of social change from microlevel interactions. Meanwhile, the neo-institutional theory of social skill animates an otherwise static social infrastructure by drawing attention to actors’ creative use of the structures and meanings that undergird their collaborations. As a result, this research provides a multi-level framework for analysing the emergence of social change in a field of organisations. The data for this study were collected through a mixed methods social network approach, which included a quantitative whole network study and qualitative personal network interviews with the members of two case study organisations. An online questionnaire garnered network structures as well as descriptive statistics from the entirety of the field. Then, computer-assisted personal network interviews with the members of both a national and a local hub organisation revealed the institutionalised understandings and roles that pattern social action in the field. In conjunction, these two data sources offer a holistic view of the structures and meanings that condition relationships and shape the possibilities of social change. This study contributes to the growing body of mixed methods social network literature by offering the theoretical and methodological grounds to observe and theorise social action within the confines of relationship structures. This study also demonstrates the value of embedding personal network interviews within a field-wide network study in order to create a multi-level view of the mechanisms of social change, inclusive of relationships that extend beyond the field in question. The results of this study demonstrate that creative actors take advantage of differences in the field while they encourage unity through network structure and institutional meaning. Divergent structures that emerge from service and advocacy collaborative relationships encourage diversity in service provision and unity in advocacy efforts, respectively. Meanwhile, templates for interorganisational collaboration underscore differences between organisations and offer common grounds for joint working. Within the case study organisations, institutionalised understandings of the work at hand as either rights- or needs-based constrain the network location of each organisation and create institutional space for potentially conflicting activities. Seeming contradictions between the service and advocacy roles and across stakeholder interests present opportunities for actors to access and generate new resources and institutions. Members of case study organisations bring this same skilful opportunism to the institutionalised constraints generated by other fields, namely the state and funders. Creative responses across relationships within and beyond the field demonstrate that social change emerges from conscious efforts to create, bolster, and diminish the existing social order as necessary.