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NVSQ Symposium on Critical Nonprofit Studies

Our Editorial Team, as previous ones, has a deep commitment to promoting theoretical and methodological pluralism in the articles published in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly (NVSQ; Guo et al., 2016; Handy et al., 2013). Alongside such diversity, NVSQ seeks to advance the development of big ideas and audacious theory across the nonprofit and philanthropy field—in ways that challenge long-held assumptions, breakdown old categories, and enable us to come at issues in new ways (Bies et al., 2019). Such audaciousness often involves new, sometimes unconformable, conversations with scholars who bring refreshing, critical perspectives to theory and research. When the team of Tracey Coule, Jennifer Dodge, and Angela Eikenberry submitted a proposal for a symposium on Critical Scholarship in Nonprofit Studies, we were excited to take up the challenge of pursuing some of these bold ideas that raise serious questions and promote deeper self-reflection about scholarship in the field. The notion of “critical studies” is often treated as an elastic one, with varying interpretations of what constitutes “critical” and differing assessments of the core tenets of a critical approach. An important contribution of the Symposium is that the guest editors begin by clarifying the parameters of critical theory and tools. Coule, Dodge, and Eikenberry position critical studies as work that challenges the structures of domination, addresses asymmetrical power relationships, including in knowledge creation, and goes beyond incrementalism and instrumentalism which simply modify mainstream research or ameliorate disadvantage. In this way, critical theory aims to advance fundamental systems change. Rather than summarizing their intentions and contributions in this note, we have invited the Guest Editors to explain the “critical project” and how it advances nonprofit scholarship, and to introduce the other articles in the symposium.