UNA “SOCIETÀ ARMONIOSA”? Il posto del conflitto nelle pratiche e nel discorso sul Terzo Settore/A “HARMONIOUS SOCIETY”? Conflicts in practices and discourses on the Third Sector

Abstract

The article deals with the transformations occurred in the Third Sector and in the debate around its role, and analyses the progressive decrease of conflicted relations that happened in the last decades. The disappearance of conflict as a distinguishing feature of the Third Sector is the central argument expressed by this paper, and it is analysed at three different levels. The first focuses on the category of non-profit as a non conflicted one, whose relevance is agreed even if with different assumptions and objectives, mainly following the reassuring rhetoric of civil society as something intrinsically valuable. The second level of analysis deals with the overcoming of the antagonism against the state, that follows the transformations of the welfare systems and the spread of the governance model. Within this model, third sector organizations are often co-opted in decision-making processes, and therefore tend to prefer the development of cooperative networks. Finally, the third level of analysis focuses on the internal dimension of the non-profit organizations, where the dialectical space is lowered by the process of marketization, with a consistent loss of creative potential.