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.