2024 Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference

11th September 2024 - 12th September 2024 (All Day)

London , United Kingdom

Voice of the people? Democracy, representation, and involvement in and through the voluntary sector and volunteering

Wednesday – Thursday, 11-12 September 2024

Location: Bayes Business School, City, University of London, London, UK

Registration for the Conference (closes 1 September 2024)

The conference is open to all to attend. To book, go to: https://www.bayes.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/cce/events#jump-to-VSVR-conference

We are pleased to say that the prices for the conference have been held for the past two years, with discounts available for early bird bookings until 22^nd July. As with past conferences, a members concession price is available for those from small organisations (<£500k income), students, new researchers, unwaged or retired. Details are below.

Category	Early-Bird Price (until 22 July)	Standard Price (until bookings close 1 Sept)
Two-day Member (of VSSN, NCVO, VAI), including conference dinner	£270	£340
Two-day Member Concessionary rate, for those VSSN/NVO/VAI members from small organisations (<£500k income), unwaged, students, new researchers, retired, including conference dinner. Note: This includes additional, optional, workshop on Tuesday, 10 Sept for students and new researchers	£140	£190
Two-day Non-member rate, including conference dinner	£380	£420
One-day Member (of VSSN, NCVO, VAI)	£150	£180
One-day Member Concessionary rate, for VSSN/NCVO/VAI members from small organisations (<£500k income), unwaged, students, new researchers, retired	£80	£110
One day non-member rate	£200	£230
Conference Dinner (for one-day attendees to add if they wish to join us for dinner)	£35	£35

VSSN strives to make the annual conference accessible, affordable and inclusive. In response to feedback, VSSN is extending access to concession rates for this year (2024) and welcomes feedback for future years. In exceptional circumstances, the concession rate may apply to:

any member experiencing precarity (e.g. temporary short-term research contracts) or financial difficulty in attending (e.g. without access to an institutional budget for attendance);
non-members from small voluntary organisations (<£500k income), students, new researchers, and unwaged and retired individuals facing financial difficulty in attending;
individuals facing precarity or financial difficulty in meeting the costs of membership and attending the conference (e.g., those with substantial travel costs).

Individuals meeting any of the above three criteria and wanting to access the concessionary rate are encouraged to contact the conference organisers via vsrconference@gmail.com, outlining their reasons for requesting the concession rate before 22 July 2024. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

All delegates are responsible for booking their own accommodation. Recommendations for accommodation close to the venue will be provided shortly within a FAQ section.

This year’s conference theme

With political elections both in the UK and around the world, 2024 marks a year of challenge and opportunity for the voluntary sector in relation to its engagement with communities and role within democracy.

Recent events such as the COVID-19 crisis, war in Ukraine and the Middle East, and cost of living pressures, have seen a renewed focus on the way voluntary sector organisations are able to respond to challenges at local, national, and international levels, often working alongside those in the public and for-profit sectors.

At the same time, the sector is facing challenges to its position as primary community representative and preferred route of community engagement as a result of the growth of alternative forms of citizen involvement in public life, for example through advances in technology and through direct action.

Similarly, the diversity of the sector means that overall judgements and assumptions about ways of working are difficult to substantiate and many organisations lack the capacity, skills, or inclination to engage with broader discussions about their place in democracy. Many organisations actively shy away from political or value-based discussions and instead focus on their service offer and immediate service user need.

This situation exists despite the voluntary sector and volunteering being seen as vital elements of societal democracy, notably by surfacing and communicating issues that may not otherwise be acknowledged, and addressing issues and topics that would otherwise be neglected.

This leaves us with a variety of questions including: how legitimate is the sector’s position in both representing and engaging with communities? How do voluntary sector organisations engage in political debates? What is the sector’s usefulness in democratic systems? What is the relationship between volunteering and democracy? What standards of democracy should voluntary sector organisations themselves be held to? And, ultimately, can the sector truly act as the ‘voice of the people’?

This conference invites participants to explore these issues, whilst also hearing about the latest research covering a wide range of topics relating to the voluntary sector and volunteering. The Voluntary Sector and Volunteering Research Conference 2024 is organised by the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN), in partnership with Voluntary Action Islington (VAI), and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO). It is hosted by the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School, City, University of London. It will provide a unique opportunity for academics, policy makers and practitioners from the UK and further afield to come together to share findings and discuss the implications of research for civil society.

Aims and streams

The conference aims to:

Contribute to evidence and theory-building in the field
Develop emerging research ideas
Inform and be informed by the work of practitioners
Inform and influence policy

Individual papers, panel sessions and workshops will be presented concerning the following streams relevant to volunteering and the voluntary sector:

The Conference Theme – Voice of the People?
Diversity, (in)equality and inclusion
Current and recent crises and voluntary action
Democracy and grassroots voluntary action
Volunteering, participation and social action
Advances in theory and methods
Resources, including funding, fundraising, philanthropy, social enterprise, and social investment
Organisational management and governance, including law and regulation
Historical perspectives on civil society, the voluntary sector and volunteering
Measuring civil society: outcomes, impact and social value

Contributions will be from those working in the voluntary sector and civil society, and research from a variety of disciplines, including sociology, social policy, politics, psychology, geography, economics, business studies, law, anthropology, philosophy and ethics and beyond!

Key dates
8 May 2024	Deadline for abstract submissions
22 July 2024	Early bird rate ends
16 August 2024	Deadline for full paper submissions
1 September 2024	Conference booking closes
10 September 2024	New Researchers’ Stream welcome event
11-12 September 2024	The Conference

Plenary sessions

Alongside the paper sessions and workshops, the programme will include plenary sessions, with an exciting line up of keynote presentations. These will include the opportunity for roundtable sessions where participants will have the opportunity to meet and share ideas with new and experienced researchers in their field, developing social and professional networks and agendas for future research and practice.

New / Early Career Researchers

The Conference is an ideal opportunity for new or early career researchers looking to meet, discuss and present their research with other new researchers in a supportive setting. A special conference welcome event will run on Tuesday, 10 September, for newer researchers and students to meet, network, and gain support from the VSSN community. New researchers can choose to present papers either on this day or within the main conference. The New Researchers’ stream is intended for all early career researchers in the field of voluntary sector/volunteering studies. Our definition is inclusive of students, those new to an academic career, practitioners, and those in-between. Attendance at the conference is subsidised for New Researchers. For more details about how the New Researchers’ stream works, please visit: https://www.vssn.org.uk/new-researchers-stream/

Best paper prizes

Campbell Adamson Memorial Prize

Presenters who submit a full paper by the 16 August deadline will automatically be considered for the Campbell Adamson Memorial Prize for best paper, which includes a £300 prize sponsored by NCVO.

Duncan Scott New Researchers’ Prize

New Researchers who submit a full paper by the 16 August deadline will automatically be considered for the Duncan Scott New Researchers’ Prize for best paper, which includes a £100 prize.

Voluntary Sector Review Best Article Prize

The conference will also see the third annual Voluntary Sector Review Best Article Prize awarded, with the authors of the winning article receiving a joint £300 prize from the publisher Policy Press and VSSN.

Questions? Want to find out more?

For more information about the conference, email us: vsvrconference@gmail.com. For more information about VSSN, go to: https://www.vssn.org.uk/about-us/benefits-of-membership.

Registration for the Conference

The conference is open to all to attend. For booking information, go to: https://www.bayes.city.ac.uk/faculties-and-research/centres/cce/events#jump-to-VSVR-conference

Early Bird rates apply until 22 July and bookings will close 1 September 2024.