Introduction

Previous chapters have argued that a robust civil society requires active citizens. In turn, active citizenship requires nurturing settings, with facilitating processes, practices, structures and norms. Over the past three decades there has been a growing body of literature championing the role of third sector organisations in cultivating citizenship. But what is it about third sector organisations that might make them special sites for the development of active citizenship? A detailed answer to this question involves a number of elements: identification and appraisal of the theoretical claims; investigation of the types of active citizenship under consideration; analysis of the different forms of third sector organisation; consideration of the context in which they are operating; and examination of the evidence available. A comprehensive study of this kind is beyond the scope of this book. However, we can begin to unpack these elements. This chapter begins therefore by discussing theoretical arguments about four major features of third sector organisations that can nurture active citizenship – or can be claimed as doing so. Later chapters then consider examples of different types of active citizenship in various third sector settings.

Features of third sector organisations

The four main features of third sector organisations that we have identified as nurturing active citizenship are: agency; association; democratic processes; and the development of cosmopolitanism. These features are interrelated and not necessarily of equal strength in any one organisation. Nor are they evident in every third sector organisation. But they provide cultural frames that can induce people to think and act in certain ways.The first part of this chapter discusses each of the features or claims we have identified in turn. The second half of the chapter highlights some of the complexities in understanding the roles of the third sector.

Agency

Third sector organisations are a vehicle for citizen agency – which, for this book, is perhaps their most important feature. They are the means through which citizens can actively engage with each other and with society at large to discuss issues of mutual concern and then take further action around this engagement. They foster initiative and reflexive action. As centres of uncoerced activity they act as the communities of choice mentioned in Chapter Three, in which people can participate, or from which they can exit of their own volition.