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。具体地说，它将考察审计如何从英国的大小捐赠者那里获得并保持合法性，尽管捐赠者意识到经审计的信息范围有限。布迪厄的理论将有助于我们理解审计如何从捐赠者那里获得合法性。他整合了场、资本和习性的概念，并解释了某些领域的行为者如何通过他们拥有的资源获得权力。应用这一理论，提出了以下研究问题。研究问题1：慈善领域的主要参与者的地位是什么，他们之间的关系是什么？这些关键因素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了什么资本，转移到了慈善部门？资本如何影响从捐赠者那里获得的象征性资本的转换？研究问题3：在慈善部门，审计师积累了哪些经济、文化和社会资本？在捐赠者眼中，这样的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：慈善部门审计师的习惯是什么？这种习惯如何影响审计从捐赠者那里获得象征性资金给慈善机构的过程？将使用档案策略对分析进行详尽的描述和背景分析。这项研究将审查档案记录，如已公布的慈善机构审计报告、慈善委员会发布的审计程序文件。将使用半结构访谈来调查所有研究问题。这项研究将使用面对面和电话采访的方式，约35名参与者，包括审计师、大小捐赠者、慈善受益人和慈善委员会和慈善组织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，采访将匿名报告，以鼓励他们成为候选人。数据收集后，将使用主题分析，并将遵循六个阶段的分析。

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.