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Members Only? Exclusivity and Fractionalisation in the Malaysian Third Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Nur Azam Anuarul Perai Open the ORCID record for Nur Azam Anuarul Perai [Opens in a new window]  and
Alasdair C. Rutherford
Nur Azam Anuarul Perai*
Affiliation:
Azman Hashim International Business School, University of Technology Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Alasdair C. Rutherford
Affiliation:
University of Stirling, Stirling, UK
*
nurazam@utm.my
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Abstract

Relatively little is known about the Malaysian third sector. This is in large part due to the lack of large-scale data about the organisations that make up the sector, with the last comprehensive investigation nearly 50 years ago (Douglas and Pedersen in Blood, believer, and brother: the development of voluntary associations in Malaysia, 1973). The limited understanding of the make-up of the sector creates difficulties in policy development and resource allocation. For the first time, we combine the organisational databases of seven different regulators to map the Malaysian third sector, classifying organisations according to the International Classification for Non-Profit Organisations. We produce a map of the Malaysian third sector, describing its constituents, activities and beneficiaries. Our results show a sector cross-cut with ethnicity and religion, and we reflect on the implications both for the development of third sector organisations in Malaysia and for how current nonprofit theories adequately describe third sectors in non-western contexts.

Keywords

Third sectorMappingClassificationReligionEthnicity

Information

Type
Research Papers
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , August 2023 , pp. 708 - 720
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2022

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