Civil Society Management Education in Finland: What’s Management Got to Do With It?

Abstract

The increasing professionalization of civil society is a global trend that stems largely from the growing role of third sector organizations in policy making and service delivery. Such a trend can also be identified in Finland, providing a timely moment to take stock of the current provision of tertiary level civil society management education in the Finnish higher education system. In this article, I identify two ways of conceptualizing the role of civil society whereby civil society organizations are seen as a function of either service delivery or democratization. In Finnish civil society education, the latter view tends to be emphasized, leaving a gap between the needs of professionalizing civil society organizations and the current provision of higher education courses on civil society management.