This important book is the first edited collection to provide an up to date and comprehensive overview of the third sector’s role in public service delivery. Exploring areas such as social enterprise, capacity building, volunteering and social value, the authors provide a platform for academic and policy debates on the topic. Drawing on research carried out at the ESRC funded Third Sector Research Centre, the book charts the historical development of the state-third sector relationship, and reviews the major debates and controversies accompanying recent shifts in that relationship. It is a valuable resource for social science academics and postgraduate students as well as policymakers and practitioners in the public and third sectors in fields such as criminal justice, health, housing and social care.

This book offers a comprehensive overview of the role of the third sector--voluntary or nonprofit groups--in the delivery of public services in the United Kingdom. It details the historical development of the relationship between the government and the third sector, reviews major debates and controversies that have accompanied the increasing reliance on third-sector work in recent years, and explores the various fields in which third-sector activity is prominent.

In recent years public management research in a variety of disciplines has paid increasing attention to the role of citizens and the third sector in the provision of public services. Several of these efforts have employed the concept of co-production to better understand and explain this trend. This book aims to go further by systematizing the growing body of academic papers and reports that focus on various aspects of co-production and its potential contribution to new public governance. It has an interdisciplinary focus that makes a unique contribution to the body of knowledge in this field, at the cross-roads of a number of disciplines - including business administration, policy studies, political science, public management, sociology, third sector studies, etc. The unique presentation of them together in this volume both allows for comparing and contrasting these different perspectives and for potential theoretical collaboration and development. More particularly, this volume addresses the following concerns: What is the nature of co-production and what challenges does it face? How can we conceptualize the concept of co-production? How does co-production works in practice? How does co-production unfold in reality? What can be the effects of co-production? And more specific, firstly, how can co-production contribute to service quality and service management in public services, and secondly, what is the input of co-production on growing citizen involvement and development of participative democracy?

Public management research has in recent years paid increasing attention to the third sector, especially to its role in the provision of public services. Evidence of this is the rising number of publications on the topic, as well as a growing number of sessions and papers on the topic in academic conferences of the EGPA and IRSPM. However, much of the discussion on its role is motivated at least as much by ideology as by fact. We still lack a proper empirical understanding of what happens when the third sector is drawn into public service provision. In this thematic presentation of Co-Production: The Third Sector and the Delivery of Public Services, we will try to enhance this understanding by presenting several new studies on the subject. We also introduce the concepts of co-production, co-management and co-governance as a conceptual framework that enables us to better understand such developments.

Edited by a leading light in the field, this book presents contemporary research into the voluntary sector in Europe, exploring its contribution to European society as well as the key challenges it faces, drawing from both economics and sociology.

The contributors examine the voluntary & non-profit sectors in Europe. They discuss a number of issues regarding this 'third' sector.

In ten chapters written expressly for this book, international experts in economics, political science, sociology, and social welfare examine the position of the third sector vis-a-vis government in European countries and Israel, revealing the growing interdependence of the public and voluntary sectors. The conventional wisdom assumes a basic conflict between the voluntary sector and the state. The authors of this volume show that, far from competing with government, nonprofit organizations provide an alternative set of mechanisms through which to deliver publicly financed services. In many countries, for example, partnerships between local government and voluntary organizations are thriving. The authors put the current debate over the relative roles of government and the nonprofit sector into perspective by examining how the relationship between them has developed; evaluate the possibilities for cooperation between nonprofits and the state in coping with current social needs; assess the extent to which nonprofit organizations can assume new burdens; and explore, in different national settings, the evolving relationship between the nonprofit sector and the state, which has come to be a central issue in the political discourse of our day.