Interrogating the agency of non-profit labour market intermediaries: Casting light on ‘shadow spaces’ through an institutional-relational view
研究了政府削减开支背景下，非营利劳动力市场中介如何在与国家的关系中发挥能动性，通过分析蒙特利尔两家服务移民工人的组织，揭示了制度配置如何影响其行动空间。
In a context of government cutbacks, non-profit labour-market intermediaries are assuming a more significant role in efforts to combat precarious employment. Yet such organizations are still subject to state funding regimes, regulations, oversight and neoliberal logics. As such, some scholars argue that they constitute "shadow state" spaces. In this paper, we move beyond the 'shadow' concept, casting light on the ways that different state-non-profit relations shape non-profits' agency to define and realize their respective mandates. Building on a relational perspective, we hold that links between non-profits and the state are not linear. We complement this perspective with an institutional-relational approach to consider how a non-profit's distinct institutional configuration (i.e., regulations, funders, and partners) enables or forecloses agency vis-à-vis the state apparatus. Through an examination of two non-profit labour market intermediaries that serve immigrant workers in Montreal/Tio'tia:ke, our analysis lends insight into institutional elements that can enlarge a non-profit organization's space to maneuver.