New Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector launched
The Centre for Research on Civil Society and Voluntary Sector is a three year research programme which aims at increasing and developing knowledge about the role the voluntary sector plays in society and at strengthening the sector through research driven knowledge.
A large part of the Norwegian population volunteer on a regular basis and for many volunteering is closely interlinked with their identity and quality of life. Little research has however been done on the voluntary sector and the Centre aims at among other things exploring how this sector impacts on and interacts with civil society and democracy.
The Centre will highlight transitional changes in the voluntary sector between 1998 and 2008 with emphasis on how new participation models change traditional hierarchical structures. Research on public governance and how the sector is financed will be other key issues, and the Centre will have significant impact on government policy.
- We need to know more about the voluntary sector in Norway, said Trond Giske, Minister of Culture and Church Affairs. - This research programme brings together the country's top researchers on this field and will at the same time encourage new research talents
The project is an independent research collaboration between the Institute for Social Research (ISF) and Bergen based Stein Rokkan Centre for Social Studies and will be lead by Bernard Enjolras, Research Director at ISF.
- This kind of collaboration is rather unusual in academia says Per Selle, professor at the University in Bergen and affiliated senior researcher at the Rokkan Centre.
- We are thrilled to be in partnership with the Rokkan Centre, concurs Enjolas. - In the future we hope to expand this to including other research networks.
As the Centre will be entirely virtual, the webpage www.civilsociety.no will contain an overview of the Centre’s researchers, projects, events and publications. The website, which will be live from 1 Jauary 2009, will also provide a forum for researchers and representants from volunteer organisations to meet, discuss and network.
Funding is provided by the Ministry of Culture and Church Affairs (KKD) and the Ministry of Children and Equality which have respectively contributed with NOK 3.5 and 1.9 mill in 2008. KKD will increase its contributions with NOK 1 mill in 2009.