Introduction

The Third Sector European Policy (TSEP) network was set up to initiate analysis of the development of European policy towards voluntary, nonprofit, NGOs or social economy organisations - referred to by some commentators as 'organised civil society'. In addition to a core team at LSE led by Jeremy Kendall, the network brings together leading third sector and public policy researchers from 8 other European countries.* 

Since its start in 2003 the group has worked to develop an analytic understanding of key aspects of the highly variegated policy space inhabited by 'organised civil society' and  to strengthen the links between research and policy by the convening of Policy Workshops across Europe. While research on organisations between the market and the state has developed significantly in Europe in recent years, the focus of the TSEP research network is distinctive in a number of senses.

• The network focuses not on the third sector per se, but on the third sector policy process. It seeks to attend to how third sector policy is jointly initiated, developed and sustained by the third sector and other policy actors, including State institutions.
  
  
• Policy is understood as a multi-level process involving institutions at EU, national and sub-national levels. Policy making in this field has traditionally been seen as essentially a concern within Member States. In contrast, this network explores, theoretically and empirically, the possibility that the relationship between levels is evolving to engage EU level institutions and actors to a significant degree.
  
  
• In addition, the primary focus of the network is policy seen as 'horizontal' in character. That is, the analysis is geared towards understanding the development of policy processes which cut across discrete 'vertical' policy fields (such as care for older people or sports) - and which are bound up with the evolution of the social welfare domain, and public policy more broadly. 
  
  
• Theoretically, the network seeks to explore how insights from specialised third sector studies and generic policy process analysis can be brought together to provide a framework (or frameworks) for analysis.
  
  
• The content and meaning of 'third sector' or other collective nouns used to label groups situated between the State and the market is not defined a priori. Rather, evolving vocabularies are taken to be important aspects of the policy process to be explicated as part of the analysis.
  
  
• Empirically, the degree of 'horizontality' is examined. This involves description and analysis of the emergence of those policy issues which are most relevant and salient from the perspective national policy actors; and examination of the developmental trajectory of a small number of 'shared cases' in which such actors are, or could be, involved in some or all countries is undertaken. The list of cases includes the European statute of association, local social capital schemes (as part of the structural fund allocations), National Action Plans, the follow-through to the United Nations international Year of Volunteering (2001) and the Convention on the Future of Europe.

* For a full list of our members see the Who's who pages.

Last updated: 2005

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