Ebba Sjögren

Contemporary civil society organisations (CSOs) face ever more settings of closing space, and an emerging literature has begun to show how such hostile conditions shape accountability practices for local CSOs. However, less is known about how funders of such organisations themselves account for involvement with advocacy-based CSOs that are a target of state-sanctioned repression. Drawing on annual reports and associated documents issued by the prominent Russian human rights non-governmental organisation (NGO) Memorial and its international non-governmental funders over three decades, we derive four modes of transparency of funders vis-à-vis their commitment to Memorial and their involvement in Russia. We also analyse shifts and patterns in funders’ public disclosures, against a backdrop of mounting hostility against foreign-funded CSOs in Russia. We find that funders are generally restrictive in what they disclose about their involvement in a hostile setting and responsive to deteriorating circumstances for a potentially vulnerable grantee. In particular, funders embedded in the hostile conditions faced by their grantee engage in protective opacity to render their own and recipient organisations’ activities and associates more opaque. We argue that this shielding tactic can support and sustain funders’ involvement in hostile conditions where public dissemination of information has the potential to be weaponised. Our findings offer a timely problematisation of the hitherto dominant trope that NGO funders are distanced and self-interested promoters of greater transparency and upward accountability.

Elite business organizations (EBOs) hold a privileged position within the business community, and develop management methods, norms and individuals that serve as models of ‘best practice’ for the economy at large. It is therefore problematic that many EBOs appear unable to achieve the same success and competence in their equality work as in their core business. In this paper we investigate how gender inequality is perpetuated in a Swedish EBO, despite various supportive external and internal structures and processes, and discuss how this can be practically addressed. A case study of FIN, a highly successful global investment company headquartered in Sweden, was performed through interviews with men and women working as investment professionals at the junior, senior and partner level. Paradoxically, we found that while all employees expressed near-universal commitment to improving gender equality, most perceived very limited possibilities to do so despite being members of a powerful business elite. This experience of powerlessness among both women and men was linked to a perceived business imperative. Our empirical analysis outlines the complex relationship between the perceived competence requirements of the core business, and the organization’s perceived capacity to secure and develop such competences in individuals who were not already ‘ideal workers’ (Acker 1990). By juxtaposing perceived problems, solutions and ‘unchangeable’ circumstances, we also identify grounds for productive change in the elite business organization setting.