WP19 Responsible

CR49 - University of Kent (Kent)

WP19 Responsible for Spread of Excellence

CR49 - University of Kent (Kent)

WP19 Objectives

In many European countries in recent years, there has been an apparent convergence in thinking across the political spectrum: the third sector is seen as essentially a 'good thing', to be encouraged in welfare mixes as part of policy aspirations including the search for innovation, the extension of user choice, 'modernisation', increasing economy and efficiency, coping with growing societal ethnic and lifestyle heterogeneity, and building social capital. We want to explore whether these developments represent a genuine process of shared path finding and innovation transcending the Left-Right divide.

WP19 Description of Work

The exploration would involve convening seminars inviting experts in particular ideologies to outline assumptions and parameters. Each would be asked to:

1. outline how the third or organised civil society sector is situated in the relevant worldview;
2. suggest what are the essential claims about the sector's modus operandi, social contributions and external relations with other sectors that underpin its significance in that ideology and
3. examine whether the political parties/movements which carry these ideologies have modified their thinking about "sectors" in recent years, and develop an account of why this has taken place in the particular case of the third sector.

WP19 Participants

• CR49 - University of Kent (Kent)
• CR40 - University of Gothenburg, School of Public Administration (SPAGU) & Centre for Public Sector Research (Gothenburg)

WP19 Documents

For documents of this work package, please go to CINEFOGO Database and type WP19 in the Search field.