Understanding collaboration in the context of a social inclusion, equality and human rights multiagency alliance

Kenealy, Claire

Understanding collaboration in the context of a social inclusion, equality and human rights multiagency alliance

Files

ClaireKenealyCARLResearchreport2019.pdf(2.16 MB)

Published Version

Date

2019-11

Authors

Kenealy, Claire

Publisher

Community-Academic Research Links, University College Cork

Abstract

The overall aim of this community based research (CBR) project is to understand inter-organisational collaboration in the context of a social inclusion, equality and human rights alliance. This research was undertaken in collaboration with Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance (CESCA), a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) in Cork City and Community Academic Research Links (CARL) in University College Cork (UCC). CESCA is an alliance of eighteen Third Sector groups in Cork City which was established in 2014 to collaborate together to address and enhance equality and inclusion in Cork City. CARL supports research in the community by acting as a support and linkage between CSO’s and research students and their research supervisors in UCC. The research is underpinned by two research questions that derived from CESCA. Firstly the research asks how effective is working together as an alliance as opposed to operating as individual organisations. The second question asks: what are the component parts needed to make an alliance successful. The theoretical underpinning of this research is activity theory (Engestrom 1987), and social capital theory (Bourdieu1992; Putnam 1993, 2001). The research adopted an interpretivist qualitative methodology (Flick 2006). Semi-structured interviews (Strauss and Corbin 1990) and participant observation (Schmuck 1997) were the methods used for data collection. Thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke 2006) was the approach adopted for analysis of the data. The research finding are presented as two themes based on contradictions (Engestrom 1987) identified in the data analysis. These are Strategic Networking versus Tokenism, and Collaboration versus Competition.

Keywords

Social inclusion , Equality , Human rights , Multiagency alliance , Community based research , Cork Equal and Sustainable Communities Alliance , CESCA

Citation

Kenealy, C. (2019) Understanding collaboration in the context of a social inclusion, equality and human rights multiagency alliance. Cork: Community-Academic Research Links, University College Cork.