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

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，它将研究审计如何从英国的大小捐助者那里获得和保持合法性，尽管捐助者意识到审计信息的范围有限。布迪厄的理论将有助于我们理解审计是如何从捐赠者那里获得合法性的。他将场域（field）、资本（capital）和惯习（habitus）的概念整合在一起，解释了特定场域中的行动者如何通过所拥有的资源获得权力。运用这一理论，提出以下研究问题。研究问题1：慈善领域的主要行动者的地位是什么？他们之间的关系是什么？这些关键角色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资本的过程？研究问题2：审计人员在之前的领域积累的哪些资本被转移到了慈善领域？资本如何影响从捐助者获得的象征资本的转换？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？这些资本如何直接成为或负面影响捐助者眼中审计的合法性（即象征性资本）？研究问题4：慈善行业审计师的习惯是什么？这种习惯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？档案策略将被用来提供一个厚实的描述和上下文化的分析。研究将检讨档案记录，例如慈善机构公布的审计报告、慈善事务监察委员会公布的审计程序文件等。半结构化访谈将用于调查所有研究问题。这项研究将采用面对面和电话采访的方式，约有35名参与者，包括审计员、大小捐助者、慈善受益人、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，参与者将被告知，采访将匿名报道，以鼓励他们坦诚。在数据收集之后，将使用专题分析，并将进行六个阶段的分析。

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.