The Centre for Voluntary Action Studies, a research centre established in 1995 as part of the School of Policy Studies, is currently incorporated as a research programme with the Social and Policy Research Institute.

CVAS exists to: Promote, develop, conduct and disseminate research on voluntary action as a contribution to scholarship and as a resource for social and public policy and for the voluntary sector in both parts of Ireland and internationally.

Its strategic aims include:

• Contributing to increasing knowledge and understanding
  of voluntary action by means of research;
• Promoting voluntary action studies at the University of Ulster on an interdisciplinary basis;
• Developing links with research users (especially including policy-makers, administrators, and policy implementers in the voluntary and community sector and in government), and with colleagues in the research community throughout Ireland and in other countries. 

BACKGROUND: CVAS was established in 1995 and since that time its staff have undertaken research into the work and characteristics of the community and voluntary sector, its strengths and weaknesses, its relationship with government and other topics. The centre currently exists as a research programme within SPRI, led by Dr Nick Acheson with the support of founding director, Emeritus Professor Arthur Williamson.

CVAS staff have been active participants at the research conferences of ARNOVA, the Association for Research on Non Profit Organizations and Voluntary Action, ISTR, the International Society for Third Sector Research, and VSSN, the Voluntary Sector Studies Network.

Links have been established with key research centres in the UK, Ireland and internationally. These comprise in particular the new ESRC funded Third Sector Research Centre housed at Birmingham University jointly managed with the Universities of Kent and Southampton, http://www.tsrc.ac.uk

The Centre for Philanthropy and Giving at the CASS Business School City University, London
http://www.cass.city.ac.uk/philanthropy/

The Centre for Government and Charity Management London South Bank University
http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/bcim/cgcm/

In Ireland there are links with the Centre for Nonprofit Management at Trinity College, Dublin, the Department of Social Administration and Social Work, University College Cork, and the Department of Sociology at Maynooth College, National University of Ireland. 

International links in north America include, Rutgers University, Swarthmore College, the University of West Virginia, Bucknell University and in Canada, the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development at Carleton University, Ottawa.

CURRENT RESEARCH THEMES:

1. Civil Society and the Northern Ireland Peace Process.  A long-standing theme of the work of CVAS which has generated numerous publications over the years. Current projects include: ‘Theorizing the contribution of civil society organizations to peace-building’ (Acheson and Milofsky) and ‘The characteristics and contribution of civil society leaders to the Northern Ireland peace process in the 1990s’ (Acheson and Williamson). There is an opportunity to relate existing research in Northern Ireland to a wider agenda of building relationships in ethnically diverse regions.

2. Devolution, the reform of the welfare state and government/voluntary sector relations.  Publications include the book, Social Policy, Ageing and Voluntary Action by Acheson & Harvey. The current academic year is focused two major initiatives under this theme:
   • First, on hosting a seminar of the Voluntary Sector Studies Network (VSSN) the UK based forum on scholarship on voluntary action at UU in May 2009. The network holds meetings twice a year, at which up to five papers are presented.
   •  (see http://www.vssn.org.uk/events/event140508.htm for a report of the most recent meeting) The seminar at UU will have the theme: ‘aspects of government third sector relations - Ireland and the UK after devolution’ with five papers, one each on England, Scotland, Wales and NI and one from RoI.
   • Second the submission of a bid to the ESRC for comparative research on the fate of the ‘voluntary and community sector compacts’ in the UK after devolution, in conjunction with Professor Alex Murdock of South Bank University.
   • Multiculturalism, migration and civil society. Understanding the role and contribution of civil society to building relations with minority ethnic communities has become an important research priority. Associated with the first theme, this work divides into two; one is research by a doctoral student on Northern Ireland and the other comparative UK Canada research being done by Acheson under the Canadian Studies Programme supported by funding from the Canadian Federal Government.

Proposals for PhD research on any theme related to the above are welcome.

Some Recent Publications and Papers

Books:

• Acheson, N. B. Harvey (2008) Social Policy, Ageing and Voluntary Action, Dublin: Institute of Public Administration
• Acheson, N, B. Harvey, J. Kearney, A. Williamson, Two Paths one Purpose: Voluntary Action in Ireland, North and South, Dublin, Institute for Public Administration

Book Chapters:

• Acheson, N. and C. Milofsky (2009, forthcoming) “Derry Exceptionalism and an Organic Model of Sustained Dialogue” in Jon Van Til, Roger A. Lohmann and Dolly Ford, Eds. Sustained Dialogue and Public Deliberation: Pracademic Perspectives on an Emerging Field. Morgantown WV: WVU Press.

Journal articles:

• Acheson, N., and Milofsky, C. (2008) ‘Peace Building and Participation in Northern Ireland: Local Social Movements and the Policy Process since the Good Friday Agreement’, Ethnopolitics, 7 (1) 63-80.
• Acheson, N., and Williamson, A. (2007) ‘Civil Society in multi-level Public Policy: the case of Ireland's two Jurisdictions’, Policy and Politics, 35 (1) 25-44.
• Acheson, N. (2008) ‘Private Concerns and Public Action: a Conceptual Framework and an Irish Aside’, Optimumonline 38 (2)

Other Papers

• Acheson, N. (2008) UK devolution, compacts and the third sector’s role in the multiculturalism debate: Towards a tentative research agenda. Paper given at a joint seminar of the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research and Development, Carleton University, and the Institute of Governance, University of Ottawa in March 2008
• Acheson, N., B. Bradley-Waterhouse (2008) Compacts and the third sector’s role in the multiculturalism debate: Exploring parallels between the UK and Canada. Paper given at the 10th research conference of the Voluntary Sector Studies Network and the National Council of Voluntary Organizations, University of Warwick, September 2008