Explaining the Third Sector in South Korea

The paper presents the main characteristics and the distinctive nature of the South Korean third sector compared to most Western countries. Differences are explained in terms of cultural embededdness and political embededdness—in particular with respect to the import of Confucianism (or neo-Confucianism) and of human rights abuse in articulation with a strong ideology of anticommunism that has been developed by a succession of dictatorial regimes since the end of the Japanese colonization of Korea. The paper concludes by highlighting positive factors for the future development of the third sector in Korea.     

Conceptualizing the Third Sector in Ireland,North and South

While there is a long established and deeply embedded tradition of voluntary action and nonprofit organizing in Ireland, there has been very limited debate on a philosophy of voluntary action or on the place of the third sector in a modern democratic state. It is against this background that practitioners and academics are beginning to articulate their individual understandings of the role of the third sector in Irish society. This paper presents a framework developed from three questions to consider the place of the third sector in a modern democratic state. The questions are: What are the roles of the third sector in a society? What relationships exist between the third and other sectors? How are third sector organizations resourced within that societal context? Answering these questions contributes to a conceptualization of the third sector in Ireland, North and South.

     

Working Part‐Time for the State: Gender,Class and the Public Sector Pay Gap

This article explores the role and nature of disadvantages associated with part‐time working in perpetuating the gender pay gap in the public sector. It does so by means of a detailed case study of local government workers in the UK, with particular reference to the more than one and a half million local government service workers covered by National Joint Council bargaining arrangements. The article draws from original pay data analysis and national survey work conducted by the author. It argues that little has changed since the findings reported 20 years ago by Beechey and Perkins with respect to the disadvantages experienced by part‐time workers and the ‘construction’ of employment in gendered ways. However, the role of class may have been understated in previous accounts: class fractions in gender‐segregated employment continue to hold deep significance and provide some potential for solidaristic approaches by trade unions alongside traditional ‘equality’ initiatives.     

Third Sector Research in International Perspective: The Role of ISTR

The International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR) celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2002. Voluntas, now the journal of ISTR, started publishing in 1990. This paper reviews changes in topics, diversity of regions studied, and diversity of authors from ISTR conference papers and Voluntas articles to examine the state of research on the third sector. The findings show that ISTR and Voluntas have increased in the range of content, regions covered, and disciplinary mix. The paper also reviews progress made on third sector research and some challenges that lie ahead.     

Legitimacy and the Role of UK Third Sector Organizations in the Policy Process

This paper explores the legitimacy of third sector organizations in the policy process in the United Kingdom. It draws on empirical research to examine how legitimacy is defined, both by third sector organizations and by those they target within government. The paper argues that while many third sector organizations give high priority to political forms of legitimacy—in the sense of participatory structures and accountability to members and beneficiaries—government is generally more likely to give priority to technical forms of legitimacy, e.g., the quality of research and the ability to implement policy. Nonetheless, political legitimacy is still important, first because this is the form of legitimacy that third sector organizations claim for themselves and second because, as government gives way to governance with an increase in partnerships and collaboration, the dilemmas faced by third sector organizations in achieving political legitimacy are being faced on a broader canvas.     

Solidarity-Based Third Sector Organizations in the "Proximity Services" Field: A European Francophone Perspective

This article reviews the role of third sector organizations in the field of proximity services from a francophone perspective. We analyze how the new wave of initiatives inside the third sector in France and francophone Belgium can be seen as providing institutional responses to state and market failures that arise from trust-dependent and quasi-collective attributes of these services. These initiatives are often called solidarity based third sector organizations, a concept defined in this paper. A central assumption of this analysis is that the political context in which these services are delivered is especially important, particularly as reflected in the changing regulatory role of the state. This analysis takes, therefore, an economic sociology perspective.     

The Role of the Nonprofit Sector in Hong Kong's Development

The recent handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) brought Hong Kong worldwide attention and scrutiny. In the run up to the handover, the international media prominently featured stories about Hong Kong's freewheeling capitalism and the stability created by its administrative institutions. Lost in the media attention was the role of nonprofit organizations and the voluntary sector in Hong Kong's political and economic development. Although Hong Kong has a vibrant civil society, it has received little attention from scholars. This paper reviews the role of the third sector in Hong Kong's development. Among the issues the paper addresses are the legal codes that govern the creation and operation of nonprofit organizations in Hong Kong, the evidence regarding the role of the nonprofit sector in Hong Kong's development, particularly its relationship to the government and market sectors, and the implications of the 1997 transition for the nonprofit sector's role.     

Local and Regional Governments and Age-Friendly Communities: A Case Study of the San Francisco Bay Area

The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which cities, county departments of adult and aging services, county transportation authorities, and public transit agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area have in place age-friendly policies, programs, and infrastructure in the areas of community design, housing, transportation, health care and supportive services, and opportunities for community engagement. The most common age-friendly features include those that target alternative forms of mobility (for example, incentives for mixed-use neighborhoods and changes to improve the accessibility of public transit), while the least common policies and programs are those that aim to help older adults continue driving, such as driver education programs, driver assessment programs, and slow-moving vehicle ordinances. The article concludes with policy and research implications of these findings.     

Community-Based System,Reports, and Substantiated Cases of Elder Abuse: Disparities Between Municipalities and Relating Factors in Japan

This study examines (1) the staffing and financial characteristics of systems for elder abuse detection and intervention in the municipal governments of Japan and (2) the relationship among the development of detection and intervention systems, the reporting rates of suspected elder abuse cases, and substantiated abuse rates in 927 municipalities across Japan. Progressive systems for the detection and intervention of elder abuse were significantly associated with a larger number of public officers than in non-progressive systems. Furthermore, greater rates of both suspected and substantiated cases of abuse were associated with progressive systems for elder abuse detection and intervention. Per capita annual expenditures on the comprehensive support project and the community general support center's catchment under the Long-Term Care Insurance (LTCI) program showed no significant association with the development of systems, the rate of suspected cases, or the number of substantiated cases. National social policy makers should examine strategies that would help municipalities assign sufficient staff to elder abuse detection and intervention programs.     

Beyond the Crossroads: Policy Issues for the Philippine Nonprofit Sector

The Philippine nonprofit sector, including nongovernmental organizations, have enjoyed an enabling and facilitative state environment since the People Power Revolution of 1986. It currently faces a legitimacy challenge in terms of its ability to represent the people, to be accountable to them, and to show its autonomy and difference from the state. It also confronts the challenge of how it can deliver services more effectively as it expands and professionalizes. Raising resources through government, philanthropy, and income generation also continue to be major challenges.     

中国地方政府债务问题探讨

中国地方政府债务问题形成的主要原因,一是政府过多地、直接地参与经济活动,二是城市化加速导致地方政府举债。对于中国地方政府债务问题,总体判断仍为风险可控。一是地方政府加上中央政府的债务占GDP的比例在40%以内,远低于60%的债务率标准。二是中央政府有非常强的控制能力,在各级政府间平衡债权债务,使得中国加总的净债务率较低。三是中国整体的资产负债表仍然健康,尤其是中央政府保持相当健康的资产负债表。对地方政府债务问题,体制性的解决办法是治本之道。要从根本上解决中国地方政府不规范借债问题,须建立规范化的地方政府举债融资机制。     

Reviewing the Relationship Between the Voluntary Sector and the State in Britain in the 1990s

There have been three major analytical reviews that have examined the voluntary–statutory relationship during the 1990s, one undertaken by government in 1990 and the other two independently in 1993 and 1996. This article suggests that an historical understanding of this relationship (especially in terms of its sociopolitical dimensions) is crucial, but was missing from the 1990 review and misrepresented by the 1993 review. The 1996 document has been subjected to harsh criticism, but it was arguably sounder in its understanding of this fundamental issue. The national compact between representatives of the voluntary sector and the state, launched at the end of 1998, has built upon the arguments put forward in 1996. However, the paper suggests that given the vexed history of partnership between the sectors and the extent to which the statutory sector has become the dominant partner at the end of the 20th century, it would be premature to be overly optimistic. The paper examines three major shifts in the voluntary–statutory relationship during the 20th century, before reviewing the 1990s' documents in more detail.     

The construction of social work in Brazil: a study of scientific texts

This article is a review of 50 selected peer-reviewed articles from 2004 to 2013. The texts are analysed with reference to Malcolm Payne’s model of the three-way discourse of social work, and the findings are discussed in relation to Brazil’s social and political background. The review of the articles reveals a general perspective on social work in Brazil as a profession aiming at social change through collective transformation, and a normative identity of social work as a profession with political implications. The texts written in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience are more inclined to promote explicit political perspectives on social work than the English texts. Ideological concepts such as democracy and universal rights expressed in the articles are challenged by competing views in Brazilian society. This is especially the case in discussions about the role of the third sector in Brazil. Social work as a concept cannot be taken for granted. The experience of extreme inequalities that Brazil shares with several other Latin American countries makes it necessary to consider historical and social characteristics in order to understand the analytical perspectives that national and international academics employ when studying social work in Brazil.     

The Nonprofit Sector and the Informal Sector: A Theoretical Perspective

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - How do and why might different nations demarcate socioeconomic activity into distinct societal sectors? In this review and...     

Social Movement,Action and Change: The Influence of Women's Movements on City Government in Mumbai and London

This article reports on a research investigation into gender and local government in Mumbai in India and London in England. In both these cities female representation at the political level stands at around one third, achieved in London slowly in recent years and in Mumbai more rapidly through the adoption of a quota, or seat reservation system, implemented in 1992. In considering the experience of the women concerned it is argued that their presence and aspirations have been influenced through the networks of their respective women's movements, operating through civil society and the local state. In considering the ways in which they organize and manage the duties of office and their gendered identities, as well as in their focus on the most disadvantaged in their communities and in their dealings with others, the part played by social movements in influencing change is examined.     

Doing Gender,Practising Politics: Workplace Cultures in Local and Devolved Government

This paper takes a workplace perspective to explore the ways in which institutional arrangements influence the doing of gender and the practising of politics. It compares the workplace culture of the National Assembly for Wales (NAfW) with that of local government in Wales, showing that the culture of the NAfW is experienced as less masculinized than local government and that women, and men, are less constrained to perform an aggressive, confrontational masculinity. This suggests that, in new political institutions, practising politics may be less closely tied to a particular way of doing gender and as a result may challenge the gendering of politics. Theoretically the paper engages with debates about doing, redoing and undoing gender, arguing that in order to understand how change can be brought about, attention needs to be paid to the structural context within which gender is done as well as the interactional level of doing gender.     

The crisis of local authority funding and its implications for independent living for disabled people in the United Kingdom

The recent financial collapse of Northamptonshire County Council sets a worrying precedent for local authorities in the United Kingdom, and in particular for disabled people who depend on services provided by local authorities, such as Direct Payments for personal assistance, for their daily living needs. While the Northamptonshire situation has been blamed on financial incompetence, we argue that it has deeper roots in austerity policies implemented by Conservative-led governments since 2010 on a national level. We also argue that the placement of responsibility for funding personal assistance services in the hands of local authorities creates a deeply unjust ‘postcode lottery’ for disabled people, and we call for a national right to all services necessary for independent living, regardless of cost.