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The Social Meanings of the Third Sector: Everyday Understandings of “Nonprofit”

Virtual

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Curtis Child and Eva Witesman of Brigham Young University will present at the July Institutional Grammar Research Initiative (IGRI) virtual research seminar.

Abstract:

How do nonspecialists conceptualize the third sector? Drawing inspiration from Crawford and Ostrom’s grammar of institutions, we examine how lay observers make sense of the sectoral boundaries between nonprofits, businesses, and governments. Using a survey exercise in which study participants coded statements describing different interactions between various types of entities, we find that research participants are less prone to label interactions consistently with the nominal sectors of the organizations presented to them and more inclined to code the interactions based on the types of actions organizations take and their rationale for those actions. We thus use the grammar to explore the everyday meanings of nonprofit organization and action, and we argue that understanding these everyday meanings has important implications for theory and practice.


Category

Social Science and Public Policy

Type

Virtual

Region

Virtual

Open to

Faculty

Students, Graduate and Professional

Cost

Free

Organizer

MAX-Center for Policy Design and Governance

Contact

Davor Mondom
315.443.9362

dmondom@syr.edu

Accessibility

Contact Davor Mondom to request accommodations

Exterior of Maxwell in black and white when there was no Eggers building

We’re Turning 100!


To mark our centennial in the fall of 2024, the Maxwell School will hold special events and engagement opportunities to celebrate the many ways—across disciplines and borders—our community ever strives to, as the Oath says, “transmit this city not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.”

Throughout the year leading up to the centennial, engagement opportunities will be held for our diverse, highly accomplished community that now boasts more than 38,500 alumni across the globe.