The role of partnerships in addressing modern slavery in the UK event sector : a narrative approach

The need for partnerships has been widely recognised as a step forward to address modern slavery by key actors from the public, private, and third sectors. The form partnerships could take, the roles and contribution of partners, or how they might identify and deliver shared goals and responsibilities, however, have thus far been underexplored areas in addressing modern slavery when businesses are involved. A review of the event sector in the UK shows exposure to exploitative practices with profound implications for workers’ human and labour rights (ranging from recruitment fees and debt bondage to reliance on migrant workers, high dependence on seasonal workers, and zero-hour contracts). The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the role partnerships can play in addressing modern slavery from the perspectives of stakeholders in the UK event sector. To achieve the research aim, the constructivist ontology and interpretivist epistemology underpinning this project seek to understand participants' meaning-making within the context of modern slavery in the field of events. It explores how key actors construct reality, through the review of primary data sources using a Conceptual Framework as a foundation for this empirical research. The study is structured into two stages: a document analysis of Modern Slavery Statements, followed by semi-structured stakeholder interviews. The Conceptual Framework is developed from integrating partnership and stakeholder theories and revised after the first stage of data analysis; it allows to analyse different perspectives and to theorise partnership dynamics and the rationale for partnerships to address modern slavery in the event sector. This leads to obtaining a fuller understanding of stakeholders’ perspectives on modern slavery and partnership engagement, while also making a contribution to knowledge. The Labovian model of narrative analysis leads to reconstructing five narratives that evidence differences in key actors’ perspectives concerning the definition of modern slavery, which informs their rationale for action and their engagement in partnership. The narratives inform the way in which stakeholders from different organisations engage in partnerships, the requisites for meaningful engagement, and the processes for delivering change. They portray key actors’ sense-making of problems and solutions where partnerships often play a significant role. Findings lay the ground for future exploration of how modern slavery risks are identified and reported, and how preventative measures are implemented, including the decision to engage in different approaches to partnerships. This research yields new perspectives on the partnership front which inform four approaches to partnership: Contractual, Transactional, Peer-to-Peer, and Public Private Partnerships. These approaches carry both academic and practical contributions to knowledge, as they are integrated in a Partnership Continuum. The study concludes that the role of partnerships is not consistently understood by the stakeholders engaged in this research. Partnerships are seen as solutions, opportunities, or relationships, and engagement is regarded proactively, reactively, and even with reluctance by some actors. Key Words: partnership, modern slavery, responsibility, narrative analysis, British event sector.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Macaveiu, Claudia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hawkins, Rebecca
• Goethals, Samentha
• Codina Sotomayor, Rosa

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/jm6q-qb23

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:f1a39c82-62ca-48e3-9a6c-29b47ad3858f:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1