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Governing the Crossroads: Interstitial Communities and the Fate of Nonprofit Evaluation

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Networked Governance

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Abstract

Different strategies exist to exert influence in the context of networked social structures: brokers regulate flows of information; social movements create frames for mobilization; and high-tech clusters form linkages to advance innovation. This paper introduces interstitial communities as a fourth form of networked governance that brings together a composite of such strategies. As collectives of organizations that have access to multiple cultural repertoires, are internally integrated, and have an external reach into adjoining domains, interstitial communities can exert substantial influence over discourses and relational structures. A web-based empirical analysis of the debate on social impact evaluation illustrates how organizations at the interstice between science, management, and civil society reassemble cultural content and facilitate flows of ideas across domain boundaries.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany

    Valeska P. Korff

  2. University for Economics and Business Vienna, Wien, Austria

    Achim Oberg

  3. Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Walter W. Powell

Authors
  1. Valeska P. Korff
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  2. Achim Oberg
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  3. Walter W. Powell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Valeska P. Korff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. SOCIUM—Research Center on Inequality and Social Policy, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany

    Betina Hollstein

  2. Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences IPA Institute for Employment Relations and Labour, Helmut-Schmidt-University—University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Wenzel Matiaske

  3. Political Science Department, Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Kai-Uwe Schnapp

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Korff, V.P., Oberg, A., Powell, W.W. (2017). Governing the Crossroads: Interstitial Communities and the Fate of Nonprofit Evaluation. In: Hollstein, B., Matiaske, W., Schnapp, KU. (eds) Networked Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50386-8_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50386-8_6

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-50384-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-50386-8

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