Latin America and the Caribbean Revisited: Pathways for Research

This introductory article on Third sector research on Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) was designed with two objectives in mind. The first, to present readers with a general up to date of the political, economic, and social overview as well as an actualized context of the region, intending to show the needs and trends that individuals and civil society organizations have experienced in the past 20 years by underlining some main advances and shortcomings for LAC. This was done with the intent and idea to provide the understanding of the issues that require attention to be approached in a scholarly and interdisciplinary fashion with a Third sector studies lens. The second was to present a series of pertinent original articles placed into three distinct axis or categories that correspond distinctively to major trends identified by the guest editors of this special issue as social inclusion and development, human rights and public policies and governance of Third sector organizations. The article clearly introduces original material by fourteen specialists in Third sector research who provide results on an ample and wide range of studies and theoretical analysis of this particular region of the world.