This reference work defines more than 1,200 terms and concepts that have been found useful in past research and theory on the nonprofit sector. The entries reflect the importance of associations, citizen participation, philanthropy, voluntary action, nonprofit management, volunteer administration, leisure, and political activities of nonprofits. They also reflect a concern for the wider range of useful general concepts in theory and research that bear on the nonprofit sector and its manifestations in the United States and elsewhere. This dictionary supplies some of the necessary foundational work on the road toward a general theory of the nonprofit sector.
This guide to civil society provides a quick and easy reference to the key people, concepts and organizations of the third sector. It contains approximately 300 up-to-date entries including all terms and concepts associated with civil society, as well as regional information. Key features of the dictionary include: * definitions of concepts and terms surrounding civil society * details on specific regions important in the history of civil society, such as India, the CIS and the USA * profiles of the key personalities and organizations involved in the third sector * includes information on how the sector operates (e.g. Fair Trade, grassroots organizations and exit strategies) * provides information that would otherwise require many volumes to locate. Key terms include: Citizenship, Social Captial, Rule of Law, Nonprofit Management, Corporate Responsibilities and Social Origins Theory.
Why do some countries have a vibrant nonprofit sector while others do not? Nonprofits in Crisis explores the theory of risk as a major mechanism through which economic development influences the nonprofit sector. Nuno S. Themudo elaborates this idea by focusing on Mexican nonprofit organizations, which operate and strive to survive in a risky environment. The study of these nonprofits generates broader lessons about philanthropy and the nonprofit sector that complement wider cross-national statistical analysis.
Organizational governance has become a popular and important topic in third-sector research. This review focuses on the governance of paid-staff nonprofit organizations (also called nonprofit agencies), which are characterized by a hierarchical structure where the board has the power and the responsibility to ensure that governance functions are carried out. In this review, Van Puyvelde discusses previous literature on nonprofit organization governance. Next, a wide array of theoretical perspectives are presented that may be useful when studying the governance of nonprofit organizations. In order to analyze a number of important contemporary governance challenges, some of these theories are integrated by using a paradox perspective. The underlying idea is that depending upon the governance challenge under consideration, a different combination of theoretical perspectives may be required. Van Puyvelde concludes that different theoretical frameworks can co-exist in the literature, each addressing a different issue in nonprofit governance.
Written by over 200 leading experts from over seventy countries, this handbook provides a comprehensive, state-of-the-art overview of the latest theory and research on volunteering, civic participation and nonprofit membership associations. The first handbook on the subject to be truly multinational and interdisciplinary in its authorship, it represents a major milestone for the discipline. Each chapter follows a rigorous theoretical structure examining definitions, historical background, key analytical issues, usable knowledge, and future trends and required research. The nine parts of the handbook cover the historical and conceptual background of the discipline; special types of volunteering; the major activity areas of volunteering and associations; influences on volunteering and association participation; the internal structures of associations; the internal processes of associations; the external environments of associations; the scope and impacts of volunteering and associations; and conclusions and future prospects. This handbook provides an essential reference work for third-sector research and practice, including a valuable glossary of terms defining over eighty key concepts. Sponsored by the International Council of Voluntarism, Civil Society, and Social Economy Researcher Associations (ICSERA; www.icsera.org), it will appeal to scholars, policymakers and practitioners, and helps to define the emergent academic discipline of voluntaristics.
This book studies the deviant form of Nonprofit Groups (NPGs), mainly volunteer-based associations, but occasionally paid-staff-based nonprofit agencies. A Deviant Nonprofit Group (DNG) is defined as “a Nonprofit group that deviates significantly from certain moral norms of the society” (Smith, Stebbins, & Dover, 2006, p. 68). The aim is to develop and present an empirically grounded theory with eighty-three hypotheses about many of the key analytical features or operational and structural characteristics of DNGs. Such DNGs were usually voluntary associations with memberships and usually run by volunteers, not nonprofit agencies without memberships and usually run by paid staff (Smith, 2017a). The total theory may be termed a Grounded General Theory of DNG Operation-Structure. The book is based on an extensive review and qualitative content analysis of about 260 published research documents representing twenty-five common-language (vernacular) purposive-goal types of DNGs (vs. analytical-theoretical types, which do not exist in detail). Moral norms are the broad, emotionally charged, customary directives concerning what is right and wrong, by which members of a community or society implement their institutionalized solutions to problems significantly affecting their valued way of life (Stebbins, 1996, pp. 2–3). All the grounded hypotheses reported here were supported by empirical evidence for at least one (often two) of the two or three specific DNGs studied for all DNG types in source documents. Indeed, all reported hypotheses were supported by most of the twenty-five DNG types studied, giving significant qualitative validity to the author’s Grounded General Theory of DNG Operation-Structure. Such support suggests these hypotheses are valid at least sometimes for most DNG types and deserve further investigation. Collectively, the hypotheses of the present theory can be seen as a new theoretical paradigm for studying NPGs that helps bring analytical order to a previously chaotic realm of nonprofit sector deviant (rule-breaking) phenomena.
Serious Leisure offers a comprehensive view and analysis of the current state of the sociology of leisure. Defining and differentiating the way people use their free time, Stebbins divides such activity into categories of serious, casual, and project-based leisure that he further separates into a variety of types and subtypes. Together they comprise what he calls serious leisure.In this perspective, serious leisure constitutes systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity sufficiently substantial and interesting in nature and requiring special skills, knowledge, and experience. Casual leisure, though immediately, intrinsically rewarding, is by contrast a relatively short-lived pleasurable activity, requiring little or no special training to enjoy it. Project-based leisure is a short-term, reasonably complicated, occasional creative undertaking carried out in free time. Stebbins sets out the basic concepts and propositions that make up the three forms, focusing on their essential elements. He takes stock of the serious leisure literature as well as that for casual and project-based leisure.Stebbins sees serious leisure realized by way of a set of foundational concepts--organization, community, history, lifestyle, and culture--and several of their component areas. He reviews the history and background of the concept of serious leisure and then adds historical commentary on, first, casual leisure and, then, project-based leisure. Finally, he examines the future and the importance of the serious leisure perspective in a globalizing world, and some of its critical links with other fields of knowledge and practice, notably the nonprofit sector and preventive medicine.Together with its original insights, Serious Leisure offers a single, handy, coherent, comprehensive resource. It will be of interest to sociologists, labor studies specialists, and economists.
Contemporary sport is both a sophisticated and complex international business and a mass participatory practice run largely by volunteers and community organizations. This authoritative and comprehensive introduction to the theory and practice of sports management helps to explain the modern commercial environment that shapes sport at all levels and gives clear and sensible guidance on best practice in sports management, from elite sport to the local level. The book is divided into three sections. The first examines the global context for contemporary sports management. The second explores the key functional areas of management, from organization and strategy to finance and marketing, and explains how successful managerial techniques can be applied in a sporting context. The final section surveys a wide range of important issues in contemporary sports management, from corporate social responsibility to the use of information and communication technologies. Together, these sections provide a complete package of theory, applied practical skills and a state-of-the-art review of modern sport business. With useful features included throughout, such as chapter summaries and definitions of key terms, and with each chapter supported with real-world data and examples, this book is essential reading for all students of sport management and sport business.
Recently the topic of civil society has generated a wave of interest, and a wealth of new information. Until now no publication has attempted to organize and consolidate this knowledge. The International Encyclopedia of Civil Society fills this gap, establishing a common set of understandings and terminology, and an analytical starting point for future research. Global in scope and authoritative in content, the Encyclopedia offers succinct summaries of core concepts and theories; definitions of terms; biographical entries on important figures and organizational profiles. In addition, it serves as a reliable and up-to-date guide to additional sources of information. In sum, the Encyclopedia provides an overview of the contours of civil society, social capital, philanthropy and nonprofits across cultures and historical periods. For researchers in nonprofit and civil society studies, political science, economics, management and social enterprise, this is the most systematic appraisal of a rapidly growing field.
Much of what is written about getting old has a negative feel to it, which is certainly not entirely unjustified. Health may begin to fail. Finances may become tighter as income dwindles or stops altogether. Family and friends may move away or move on. But the retirement years do not have to be negative or bleak. Within this “dark scenario,” a positive existence is possible. Planning Your Time in Retirement focuses on the variety of free-time activities available to retirees as related to their physical, social, and economic situation in old age, helping readers find out what their passions are, what the possibilities might be, and how to cultivate their own leisure lifestyle. For some retirees, a post-work existence consisting of fun works well, for they have managed to shape an interesting casual leisure lifestyle based on easygoing activities that make them happy. Seldom included in the popular image of leisure, however, are other types of leisure that are also widely available to retirees. Regardless of means, the retirement years can consist of activities and pastimes that fulfill the interests and pursuits of any retiree. A variety of exciting leisure activities exists, which retirees may pursue within their financial, physical, mental, and geographic limits. This book provides a guide—the serious leisure perspective—for exploring these activities and choosing those that fit one’s tastes, aptitudes, and abilities. At its most appealing, a leisure lifestyle includes a balance of easy-to-do casual interests as well as serious ones that require knowledge, effort, and perseverance. For some, enjoyment and fulfillment may come from engaging in volunteer work, while for others it may involve leisure activities from which they gain some form of payment. By employing the notion of positive simplicity—simple living in the domain of leisure—many people at this stage of life can delight in these final years. While time and money cannot be ignored, finding those activities that allow for engagement, reward, and simplicity can result in days, even years, of leisure that is meaningful, enjoyable, healthy, and empowering.
