Setting the Boundaries: Established Frameworks of Operation

Abstract

As indicated in preceding chapters, a key issue addressed in this book is the role of voluntary associations in strengthening civil society. This issue is gaining attention in the burgeoning theoretical discussions of voluntary associations and civil society. However, these discussions have not, in general, been informed by empirical analyses of the oper­ating rationales and organizational forms in voluntary associations. In this chapter we present a typology of four frameworks for investigating the rationales and forms of voluntary associations, and we analyse the major themes in three of these, the activist, charity and welfare state industry frameworks. In the following chapter we analyse the fourth framework which is constructed around the discourses of the market.