Auditing in the Charity Sector: Why Auditing is Legitimate in the Eye of Donors

这项拟议的研究旨在调查慈善部门的审计如何创造或保持捐赠者的认可。具体来说，它将研究如何获得审计和维护合法性从大型和小型捐助者在英国，尽管捐助者的审计信息的有限范围的意识。布迪厄的理论将被用来帮助我们理解审计如何获得合法性从捐助者。他整合了场域、资本和惯习的概念，并解释了特定场域中的行动者如何通过他们所拥有的资源获得权力。运用这一理论，本文提出了以下研究问题：研究问题1：慈善部门中的主要行为者的地位如何，他们之间的关系如何？这些关键行为体及其相互作用如何影响审计将经济、文化和社会资本转化为象征性资本的过程？研究问题2：审计师在以前的领域积累的资本有哪些转移到慈善部门？资本如何影响向捐赠者获得的象征性资本的转化？研究问题3：在慈善领域，审计人员积累了哪些经济、文化和社会资本？在捐助者眼中，这种资本如何直接成为或负面影响审计的合法性（即象征性资本）？研究问题4：慈善部门审计员的习惯是什么？惯习如何影响审计从慈善机构捐赠者那里获得象征性资本的过程？档案策略将用于提供详细的描述和分析的背景。研究将回顾档案记录，如慈善机构公布的审计报告、慈善委员会发布的审计程序文件。将采用半结构化访谈调查所有研究问题。研究将采用面对面和电话访谈的方式，约有35名参与者，包括审计人员、大小捐赠者、慈善受益人以及慈善委员会和慈善机构的经验丰富的工作人员。在同意接受采访之前，参加者将被告知，访谈将以匿名形式进行，以鼓励他们诚实地进行。在收集数据后，将使用主题分析，这一分析将分为六个阶段。

The proposed study aims to investigate how audits in the charity sector create or maintain recognition from donors. Specifically, it will examine how audits gain and maintain legitimacy from large and small donors in the UK, despite the donors' awareness of the limited scope of audited information.Bourdieu's theory would be used to help us understand how audits obtain legitimacy from donors. He integrates the concepts of field, capital and habitus, and explains how actors in certain fields can obtain power through the resources in their possession. Applying this theory, the following research questions are proposed.Research Question 1: What is the status of key actors in the charity sector and what is their relationship? How do these key actors and their interactions influence the process by which audits transform economic, cultural and social capital into symbolic capital?Research Question 2: What capital that auditors have accumulated in their previous field has been transposed to the charity sector? How does the capital influence the conversion to symbolic capital acquired from donors?Research Question 3: In the charity sector, what economic, cultural and social capital has been accumulated by auditors? How can such capital (in)directly become, or negatively influence, the legitimacy (i.e. symbolic capital) of audits in the eye of donors?Research Question 4: What is the habitus of auditors in the charity sector? How does the habitus influence the process by which audits acquire symbolic capital from donors to charities?Archival strategies will be used to provide a thick description and contextualisation of the analysis. The study will review archival records, such as the published audit reports of charities, audit procedural documents released by the Charity Commission.Semi-structured interviews will be used to investigate all research questions.The study will use face-to-face and telephone interviews with approximately 35 participants, including auditors, large and small donors, charity beneficiaries and experienced staff at the Charity Commission and charity organisations.Before agreeing to be interviewed, participants will be informed that the interviews will be reported anonymously to encourage them to be candid.After data collection, thematic analysis will be used, and six phases of this analysis will be followed.