Neoliberal restructuring and the third sector: reshaping governance, civil society and local relations

[First paragraph of Introduction]: Until recently the discipline of Public Administration, and the Social Sciences more generally, have been remarkably silent about the role of nonprofit organizations in the provision of ‘public services’ and their contribution toward public benefit. In fact, an understanding of the place which nonprofit organizations play within society has been an ignored subject matter; the state of affairs is such that one commentator has tellingly referred to the voluntary realm as the “invisible sector” (Hall 1997: 74). Keywords: CVSS, Centre for Voluntary Sector Studies, Working Paper Series,TRSM, Ted Rogers School of Management Citation: