Les relations entre les organisations du tiers secteur et du secteur public : recension des principales approches conceptuelles

Abstract

The fight agains poverty and social exclusion calls upon both third sector and public sector organizations and thus draws renewed attention to the topic of third sector/public sector relations. Yet the scientific literature on such relations offers poor guidance as extant research appears quite diverse and scattered around various disciplines and fields of study. Therefore, to organize this diversity and present a more integrated view of the literature, this paper provides a review of published works on third sector/public sector relations. Our review suggests the literature can be organized around 5 conceptual perspectives: economical and political, contractual, collaborative, mixed and configurational. After presenting the method and organizing principles underlying our review, we expose each of the five perspectives in detail. The paper concludes on the key contributions and limits of the literature examined and offers some insight for future research.

Keywords

• partnership
• third sector
• public sector
• relations
• nonprofit sector
• collaboration