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Diversity and Ambiguity in the English Third Sector: Responding to Contracts and Competition in Public Service Delivery

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Manufacturing Civil Society

Part of the book series: IIAS Series: Governance and Public Management ((GPM))

Abstract

In the opening to this volume the editors pointed towards the increasing use of third sector organisations (TSOs) across Europe and elsewhere to deliver public or human services, as welfare states struggle to meet increasingly diverse and complex social needs (see also Pestoff & Brandsen, 2010). In this context, new forms of coordination to manage and organise these emerging relationships between states and TSOs have been required (Bode, 2006; Osborne, 2010). Though national nuances exist, recent evidence suggests there is growing convergence towards the use of (quasi) market systems to govern relationships between states and TSOs in public service delivery (Henriksen et al., 2012; Ascoli & Ranci, 2002).

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Authors
  1. Jenny Harlock
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands

    Taco Brandsen (Professor of Comparative Public Administration) (Professor of Comparative Public Administration)

  2. Faculty of Social Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands

    Willem Trommel (Professor of Public Policy and Governance) (Professor of Public Policy and Governance)

  3. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Ghent, Belgium

    Bram Verschuere (Assistant Professor of Public Management) (Assistant Professor of Public Management)

Copyright information

© 2014 Jenny Harlock

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Cite this chapter

Harlock, J. (2014). Diversity and Ambiguity in the English Third Sector: Responding to Contracts and Competition in Public Service Delivery. In: Brandsen, T., Trommel, W., Verschuere, B. (eds) Manufacturing Civil Society. IIAS Series: Governance and Public Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137351630_3

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