Malin Arvidson

In 2003 I was awarded my PhD in Sociology at Lund University. The research concerned international development and aid, with particular focus on non-government organizations (NGOs), and the concepts of "empowerment" and "participation". I have since done research in development studies (NGOs, primary health care, primary education, poverty alleviation, Water and Sanitation) and in connection with this I have spent extended periods in Bangladesh. Among other things, I have been involved in a six-year project for Sida's behalf with the mandate to evaluate the two national programs for health and primary education (http://www.reality-check-approach.com/bangladesh.html). Since a few years back my research also includes NGOs and civil society organizations in the European context. I have worked as a researcher at the University of Southampton, Third Sector Research Centre (now located at Birmingham University), where focus was on the English context, and since 2012 I am involved in research focusing on the Swedish context.  

Teaching

I am course convener of SOPA61 (School of Social Work, term 6) ‘Organization and social work’. I supervise at Master-level. I participate the SOAN42, advanced level, ‘Evaluation and knowledge production in social work’, and contribute to other courses at advanced level with lectures on evaluation and methodological aspects of researching NGOs, NPOs, civil society organizations.

Research

My research interests concern civil society organizations active in social welfare services. My work explores how, or if, such organizations have to compromise their in their business and identity as a result of economic dependence on or closeness to the public welfare sector, privatization and marketization of state welfare services. I also work with evaluation models adapted for non-profit- and value-based organizations which aims to capture generated social value. 

I have been involved in "Real Time" a longitudinal research project with the aim to identify and understand changes in civil society organizations over time in English non-profit organizations (www.birmingham.ac.uk/research/tsrc/research/real-times.aspx). Together with colleagues in Lund (Håkan Johansson), Gothenburg (Staffan Johansson) and at Ersta Sköndal (Marie Nordfeldt) I am involved in the project "Between voice and service: the voice of citizens or local contractors?" (funded by VR and FAS). My colleague Stig Linde and I work on a research project exploring aspects of how ‘audit society’ affect non-profit organizations (funded by MUCF (National Agency for Youth and civil society issues) and Crafoord).