Researching the Third Sector: Reflections and Directions From an “Old Hand”

This article is principally an agenda-setting piece based on a personal-critical reflection from someone who has a long history of being involved in the third sector as both a researcher and as someone who has been engaged in steering its governance processes (regarding policy and regulation development). It highlights key third-sector research that has featured in FAM since its inception in 1985 (“reflections”) and outlines research ideas (“directions”) as an encouragement to researchers to focus on third-sector organizations (TSOs). It argues that theoretically based, empirically grounded, rigorous research and critical reflection in the third sector are vitally important, having the potential to contribute to the protection, health, and growth of the valuable social capital that is generated by TSOs.