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Whither the third sector? Yesterday, today and tomorrow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Estelle James
Estelle James*
Affiliation:
Policy Research Department at the World Bank
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Extract

Although research on the third sector has a long history, dating back to de Tocqueville and before that to studies of religious organisations, this research was reborn and recharged about fifteen years ago with a big push from the Program on Nonprofit Organizations (PONPO) at Yale University. I was present at and participated in this rebirth, but Í have not been actively working in this field for the last few years. So I feel like a mother who has not seen her child for a time. In revisiting the field, I would like to do three things: first, to recapitulate the research that was done 10-15 years ago when this area was still in its infancy; second, to compare it with the research that is being done today; and third, to suggest some topics that I think should be on the research agenda for the future. In concluding, I will speculate about some of the tensions and ambiguities in this field - tensions that may be destined to grow as the third sector grows. Issues concerning trust and distrust will resurface several times during the course of this discussion, as they seem be at the heart of the third sector's role in society.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 1997, pp. 1 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 1997

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Footnotes

*

This article is an edited version of the keynote speech made at the second ISTR conference in Mexico City, 18-21 July 1996.

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