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The Community Development in the Italian Third Sector

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2026

Michele Bianchi Open the ORCID record for Michele Bianchi [Opens in a new window]
Michele Bianchi*
Affiliation:
Independent Researcher, Cantù, Italy
*
bianchi.michele.1990@gmail.com
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Abstract

Community Development (CD) is a process to favour the socio-economic development of communities through the engagement of citizens, social workers, public authorities or non-profit organizations. Over the last decades, theories and practices of the CD have spread all over the world. Italy has a consistent “Third Sector” (TS) with a long-standing tradition; Despite the absence of a well-defined area of the Italian CD, in recent years, particularly within theso-called Third Sector (TS), there has been to develop characterizes of the CD. This paper aims to theorize the features of the CD in the Italian TS. The research engages representatives of 23 organizations—from neighbourhood associations to foundations and national bodies—and investigates through qualitative semi-structured interviews how they promote and conceptualize CD processes. Through the framework of international theories, it is possible to define the field of the CD in the Italian TS.

Keywords

Third sectorItalyCommunity developmentNon-profitCommunity welfare

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Type
Research Paper
Information
Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations , Volume 35 , Issue 3 , June 2024 , pp. 597 - 607
Copyright
Copyright © International Society for Third-Sector Research 2023

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