Third sector contribution to territorial community-based learning environments: evolution of a local intersectoral network in a context of institutional transformations and post-pandemic COVID-19.

• In Event: Networks

Abstract

Public education policies in OECD countries focus on the creation of dynamic and collaborative community networks involving a diversity of actors to foster learning environments that transcend schools, to better respond to local contexts (OECD, 2021). These policies focus on intersectoral collaboration to strengthen local and regional capacities to implement innovative solutions, i.e., collaboration between the state, civil society, and the private sector. At the scale of a territorial community, we conceptualize these collaborative networks that engage different actors in multi-level collective action as local intersectoral networks (LINs) (Keast & Mandell, 2014). The involvement of local actors in LINs can be linked to institutional conditions (Andersson & Minas, 2021). But crisis and waves of change are affecting institutions are occurring closer and closer, although the increasing complexity of issues requires public organizations to coordinate more closely in network mode (Jacob, 2017). Consequently, these organizational, structural, and political changes cause disruptions that influence intersectoral collaboration arrangements (Grenier & Bourque, 2016). They can impact on the ability of LINs to bounce back and produce results, or even to adapt to disruptions caused by institutional transformations (White & Parent, 2018).

This conference paper presents the results of qualitative case-study research (Stake, 1995) aimed at shedding light on how institutional transformations, including COVID-19 crisis, affect the ability of a LINs to influence territorial community-based learning environments. To describe the context of institutional change and its influence on intersectoral action, we based ourselves on a LINs which targeting territorial community-based learning environments. This real situation taken in context and offers the possibility of analyzing in an evolving conceptualization, how institutional changes from the actors' point of view (Creswell & Guetterman, 2019) have influenced the LINs. Four methods of data collection were used: 1) semi-structured individual interviews (n=24); 2) observation sessions (n=50h); 3) contextual analysis; 4) analysis of documentary sources produced by the networks. Actor-network theory was used to describe how a network of actors is created and developed through the various stages leading up to mobilization (Akrich & al., 2006), and to analyze how institutional changes influence the network's construction-deconstruction process in terms of its structure and functioning.

With the aim of describing how the context of institutional change influences LIN’s targeting territorial community-based learning environments, results show that certain institutional transformations linked to the development of territorial communities weakened the ability of a LINs to act on learning environments. These transformations have granted powers to municipal administrations and reduced programs enabling third-sector organizations to develop local initiatives that contribute to improving learning environments. But against this backdrop of institutional transformations, a new positioning of philanthropic organizations with a provincial scope is supporting intersectoral networks that share collaborative practices and knowledge to increase their power to act on local living conditions. This philanthropic support, combined with the government's recognition of the role of third-sector organizations in the COVID-19 pandemic, provides LINs with new levers for action. Local actors are reorganizing to act on learning environments in a post-pandemic context and changing local dynamics.

References

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Authors

• Frédérik Gagnon

• Andre-Anne Parent, Université de Montréal

• Yves Couturier, Universit� de Sherbrooke

• Deena White, Université de Montréal