Avery Edenfield in Voluntas

English Department Associate Professor Avery Edenfield’s co-authored article was recently published in the International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, Voluntas. The article, co-authored by Fredrik Andersson, is entitled “Growing pains: The transformative journey from a nascent to a formal not-for-profit venture” and is included in the recent virtual issue of Voluntas, “Organizational Change in Nonprofit Organizations.”

This issue selected only eight articles that reflected the state of the art on literature examining organizational change from 2014-2024, a 10-year review of the most important literature in the field. Only three papers were chosen from the U.S., including Avery and Fredrik’s.

“It was my first co-authored article, and the first drawing in my dissertation,” Avery says. “While I’m in the field of technical communication, my co-author, Fredrik, felt that my findings were relevant in the nonprofit world, so we put this project together with the hopes of informing practice.”

The article discusses the transformation of a social venture from the beginning, or the nascent stage, to a formal organization. “Folks in English might be most interested in its methodological mixture,” Avery reflects. “We deploy life-cycle research (research on how organizations change and evolve) with actor-network theory, a quirky theory developed in the social sciences that has salience for rhetoric of science and technology. It was fun to put those together for a granular look at a previously unstudied topic.”

Avery comments on the opportunity that comes from working with collaborators outside of one’s area of study. “I’m solidly technical communication but have had a degree of success working with co-authors in other areas,” he says. “Those are often the most exciting projects where I’ve personally grown the most.”