Portrait of Dr Justin Davis-Smith CBE

Dr Justin Davis-Smith CBE

Associate Professor In Voluntary Sector Management

Bayes Business School , Faculty of Management

Contact

About

Overview

Justin is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass). He was previously chief executive of Volunteering England, director of the Institute for Volunteering Research and executive director of volunteering at NCVO. He has over 20 years researching and leading in the voluntary sector and has advised the UK Government and the United Nations on the development of volunteering policy. He wrote the volunteering strategy for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and has published numerous articles and books on volunteering and the voluntary sector.

He has been a member of the awards committee for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service and advisor to the Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education. He served on the Council of the Economic and Social Research Council from 2012-2015. He is a trustee of the Watford FC Community Trust and of the Royal Voluntary Service charity.

He has a First Class Honours degree in Economic and Social History and a PhD on the history of post-war industrial relations. In his early career he was speech writer to the Rt Hon Sir James Callaghan MP. In 2011 he was awarded the CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in recognition of his work on behalf of volunteering and the voluntary sector.

His research interests include the management and leadership of volunteers and the history of voluntary action. He has recently published a history of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations (100 Years of NCVO and voluntary action: Idealists and Realists, Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) to mark its centenary in 2019.

He is course lead for the voluntary sector masters' programme at Bayes and has devised a new under-graduate degree in managing for social purpose which is launching in 2021. He is a founder member of City, University of London's Centre for Modern History and has developed a new under-graduate module on the history of philanthropy.

Out of work, Justin enjoys walking in Cornwall and the Lake District, holidaying in Italy, and watching his local team, Watford FC.

Qualifications

  • PhD on The Government and Industrial Relations 1945-51, Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom, 1982 - January 1985
  • BSc in Economic and Social History (First Class Hons), Loughborough University, Loughborough, United Kingdom, 1979 - January 1982

Employment

  • Executive director, NCVO, 2013 - 2016
  • Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of London, London, United Kingdom, 2008 - 2012
  • Chief Executive, Volunteering England, 2006 - 2013
  • Founding director, Institute for Volunteering Research, 1997 - 2006
  • Head of Research, National Centre for Volunteering, 1988 - 1997
  • Political Assistant, Rt Hon James Callaghan MP, 1986 - 1988

Memberships of committees

  • Trustee, Royal Voluntary Service, May 2020 - present
  • Committee Member, Advisory Committee for Mayor of London's Volunteering Programme, 2016 - 2019
  • Trustee, Watford FC Community Trust, 2014 - present
  • Chair, Digitising the mixed economy of Welfare in Britain, 2013 - present
  • Member of National Committee, Queens Awards for Voluntary Service, 2007 - 2019

Expertise

Primary topics

  • Business History
  • Corporate Social Responsibility
  • Economic History
  • Human Resource Management
  • Industrial Relations/Labour Studies
  • Leadership
  • Management
  • Organisational Psychology
  • Organizational Behaviour
  • Qualitative Research Methods
  • Voluntary Sector Management

Industries

  • non-profit & voluntary sector
  • public sector
  • sports

Geographic Areas

  • Europe - Western

Publications

Books (4)

  1. Smith, J.D. (2019). 100 Years of NCVO and Voluntary Action Idealists and Realists. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9783030027735.
  2. Smith, J.D. and Gay, P. (2005). Active Ageing In Active Communities Volunteering And The Transition To Retirement. Policy Press. ISBN 9781861345851.
  3. Smith, J.D., Rochester, C. and Hedley, R. (1995). An Introduction to the Voluntary Sector. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415099226.
  4. Davis-Smith, (1991). The Attlee and Churchill Administrations and Industrial Unrest 1945-55: A Study in Consensus. Continuum International Publishing. ISBN 9780861871018.

Chapters (8)

  1. Davis-Smith, and Deakin, N. (2011). Labour, charity and voluntary action:the myth of hostility. In Hilton, M. and McKay, J. (Eds.), The Ages of Voluntarism How we got to the Big Society OUP/British Academy. ISBN 9780197264829.
  2. Davis-Smith, (2005). The Voluntary Tradition: Philanthropy and Self-Help in Britain 1500-1945. In Davis-Smith, J. and Rochester, C. (Eds.), Introduction to the Voluntary Sector Routledge. ISBN 9781134858101.
  3. Davis-Smith, (2000). Volunteers - Making a Difference? Voluntary Organisations and Social Policy in Britain Perspectives on Change and Choice Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9780230802247.
  4. Davis-Smith, (1997). Organising Volunteers. In Palmer, P. and Hoe, E. (Eds.), Voluntary Matters: Management and Good Practice in the Voluntary Sector Directory of Social Change. ISBN 9781900360173.
  5. Davis-Smith, (1997). Expansion or Withdrawal? The Implications of Contracting for Volunteering. In 6, P. (Ed.), The Contract Culture in Public Services: Studies from Britain, Europe and the USA Ashgate.
  6. Davis-Smith, (1996). Should volunteers be managed? In Billis, D. and Harris, M. (Eds.), Voluntary Agencies: Challenges of Organisation and Management Macmillan.
  7. Davis-Smith, (1989). The Struggle for Control of the Airwaves: The Attlee Governments, the BBC and Industrial Unrest 1945-51. Postwar Britain 1945-64: Themes and Perspectives Pinter.
  8. Davis-Smith, Active Participation beyond Employment. In Hirsch, D. (Ed.), Life After 50: Issues for Policy Research (Transitions after fifty) Joseph Rowntree Foundation. ISBN 1902633849.

Journal articles (5)

  1. Davis Smith, J. (2020). What Can History Contribute to Nonprofit Education? Journal of Nonprofit Education and Leadership. doi:10.18666/jnel-2020-10790

    [publisher’s website]

  2. Davis-Smith, J. (2006). Regulation and risk [2]. Community Care, (1647), pp. 24
  3. Smith, J.D. and Oppenheimer, M. (2005). The Labour Movement and Voluntary Action in the UK and Australia: A Comparative Perspective. Labour History, (88), pp. 105-120. doi:10.2307/27516039

    [publisher’s website]

  4. Smith, J.D. (2004). Civic Service in Western Europe. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 33(4_suppl), pp. 64S-78S. doi:10.1177/0899764004269744

    [publisher’s website]

  5. Knapp, M., Koutsogeorgopoulou, V. and Smith, J.D. (1996). Volunteer Participation in Community Care. Policy & Politics, 24(2), pp. 171-192. doi:10.1332/030557396782107124

    [publisher’s website]

Reports (8)

  1. Davis-Smith, J., Timbrell, H. and Ockenden, N. (2019). Kickstarting a new volunteer revolution. London: Royal Voluntary Service.
  2. Low, N., Butt, S., Ellis, P. and Davis Smith, J. Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable giving. London: Cabinet Office.
  3. Davis-Smith, (2002). An evaluation of the International Year of Volunteers 2001..
  4. Davis-Smith, (2000). Volunteering and Social Development. United Nations.
  5. Davis-Smith, (1997). The 1997 National Survey of Volunteering in the UK. The Institute for Volunteering Research.
  6. Davis-Smith, (1995). A new Civic Europe? Volunteering in 10 Countries. The Volunteer Centre UK.
  7. Davis-Smith, (1992). Widening Horizons in the Third Age. Carnegie UK Foundation.
  8. Davis-Smith, (1991). The 1991 National Survey of Voluntary Activity. The Volunteer Centre UK.

Professional activities

Event/conference

  1. House of Lords Select Committee on Citizenship and Civic Engagement. House of Lords, London (2017). Invited speaker.
    Paper: Volunteering, Citizenship and Civic Engagement
    Author: Davis Smith, J

Keynote lectures/speeches (10)

  1. Writing the history of NCVO: an insider perspective. University College London (2019). A lecture on the process of writing my recent history of NCVO
  2. The future of volunteering? Cass Business School (2019). Part of the Charity Talks series organised by Cass Centre for Charity Effectiveness
  3. What can history contribute to non-profit education? Cass Business School (2019). Paper delivered at the 2019 biennial conference of the Nonprofit Academic Centers Council, held at Cass, July 2019
  4. The future of volunteering. Royal Voluntary Service, London (2019). Speech on the future of volunteering at an event organized by Royal Voluntary Service
  5. Volunteering for the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Birmingham Voluntary Sector Council, Birmingham (2019). Key note speech on the role of volunteers at the 2022 Commonwealth Games as part of a one day conference entitled 'Volunteering in Birmingham: Building a shared way forward'
  6. Idealists and Realists: 100 years of NCVO. Cass Business School (2019). Key note lecture to 150 charity leaders and academics to launch my new book on the history of NCVO
  7. Volunteering in Public Services. London (2017). Panel discussion at NCVO's Annual Conference
  8. My Life in volunteering in Five Stories. Institute of Historical Research (2017). Witness Seminar for the Voluntary Action History Society
  9. Volunteering in the Twenty First Century: Unlocking the Potential. Saudi Arabia (2016). Key note address to 6th Annual NPO Forum in Saudi Arabia
  10. Managing Uncertainty: leadership and the voluntary sector in a time of change. Imperial College London (2016). Key note to Voluntary Sector Forum, Scientific Society for Saudi Students in the UK