The Sociology of Nonprofit Organizations and Sectors

Abstract

Interest in and research on nonprofit organizations and sectors have developed rapidly in recent years. Much of this work by sociologists has focussed on particular subsectors rather than on nonprofits as a class. This review attempts to extract from a large and varied literature a distinctively sociological perspective on nonprofits, which it contrasts to influential work in economics. Two questions—“Why (and where) are there nonprofit organizations” and “What difference does nonprofitness make?”—are addressed at the levels of organization, industry, and firm. Three central conclusions, each with research implications, emerge from this review: (a) The origins and behavior nonprofit organizations reflect institutional factors and state policies as well as the social-choice processes and utility functions emphasized by economists. (b) Understandingth e origins of nonprofit sectors and behavioral differences between nonprofits and for-profit or government organizations requires an industry-level ecological perspective. (c) “Nonprofitness” has no single transhistorical or transnational meaning; nonprofit-sector functions, origins, and behavior reflect specific legal definitions, cultural inheritances, and state policies in different national societies.

Golfing Alone? Corporations, Elites, and Nonprofit Growth in 100 American Communities

“…Social welfare-oriented organizations, in contrast, saw no such additional benefit. Our results are thus generally consistent with speculation in the large extant literature on nonprofits indicating that philanthropy may actually be a vehicle to benefit elite interests (e.g., Ostrander 1984, DiMaggio and Anheier 1990, Ostrower 1995. We go beyond this prior work, looking across a large number of communities and demonstrating that corporate effects on elite-oriented nonprofits are enhanced to the extent that there is a community infrastructure that seems to organize and validate the elite.…”

Profitable Nonprofits? Reward-Based Crowdfunding in the Czech Republic

“…However, the nonprofi t sector of every country is the result of its particular social, economic, and political history (Casey 2016). Th e origin, function, and mode of operation of the nonprofi t sector in each country refl ect the unique circumstances of that country (DiMaggio and Anheier 1990;James 1989;Kramer 1981;McCarthy et al 1992;Pryor 2012;Salamon and Anheier 1997;Salamon and Sokolowski 2010;Skocpol 2011). Anheier (1992, 1998) wrote of "social origins" and "nonprofi t regimes, " whereas Anheier et al (2001) talked about "national scripts. "…”

Économie sociale et solidaire, territoires et proximité

“…Mondragon est l'illustration même de croyances collectives partagées : la fidélité aux valeurs d'égalité et de coopération ; la diffusion de ces valeurs par l'éducation-formation, par le transfert générationnel familial, appuyée (transcendée) par une culture politique ancrée dans la tradition (langue, emblèmes, coutumes) et transmise massivement (université coopérative gratuite et télévision). Pour reprendre Di Maggio et Anheier (1990), il est pertinent d'invoquer ici une « raison idéologique impliquant l'existence de valeurs politiques servant de guide à l'organisation, à ses fondateurs et à ses salariés ». Toutefois, les acteurs des réseaux de l'ESS ne s'arrêtent pas le plus souvent sur une même définition de l'intérêt général, tout en croyant que leur réseau d'appartenance, en tant qu'entité abstraite, concourt à l'intérêt général.…”