Looking Backward: Twentieth-Century Themes in Charity, Voluntarism, and the Third Sector

Abstract

Although they are not likely to get much notice in the popular histories abounding with the new millennium, ideas produced by our recently concluded century abound concerning where charity, voluntarism, and the third sector fit into the common American story. Those who rely on these ideas to describe the realities they study or to justify favored policies may not be fully familiar with the paths by which these ideas came into common use. Nor is it widely known how these ideas were used in the past or what their connections were to other, seemingly different, conceptions that aimed to describe the same phenomena and relationships. In this article, we identify one key theme in the American story and briefly describe how it came about. We then proceed to illustrate why this idea seems to have persisted and, even where it is vigorously challenged, how it retains a major part of its influence.Note: All communication regarding this article should be sent to Jon Van Til,

Factors Stimulating Social Innovation in Entrepreneurship: An Empirical Evidence of Inter-Organizational Alliances in Italy

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Sociological Observations of the Third Sector Through Systems Theory: An Analytical Proposal

“…Within the scientific system, there is a significant increase of research and publications (Van Til and Ross 2001), dedicated research centers and national and international researchers' associations. Since the 1990s, the third sector became global, both in terms of the reach of knowledge production and diffusion and of the conscience of a sector (Salamon et al 2004).…”

Stepping Into and Out of the Void: Funding Dynamics of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research in California, Sweden, and South Korea

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