This article discusses promising practices used by employees and volunteers in nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in countering the mistreatment of older adults (CMOA). The findings presented here are the result of research on the material and financial actions of NPOs in CMOA, based on multiple case studies in five active Canadian NPOs in the framework of CMOA. The body of data comprises organizational documentation from NPOs, socio-demographic questionnaires and group or individual interviews with 64 participants (management volunteers, employees, field volunteers and accompanied older adults). Themed intra- and intercase analyses were carried out. Some key challenges faced by the active NPOs in CMOA include the continuity of follow-ups, difficulty in reaching older adults and obstacles to requesting help. Promising practices that have been implemented to contribute to the response to these challenges, such as collaboration practices, proactive prevention activities, canvassing and shelter services, are considered.

There are emergent interests on the dynamics of counter-terrorism measures (CTMs) at global, regional and national levels, particularly with respect to how CTMs intersect with and shape state–civil society relations. Using a descriptive research design, this study examines how the implementation of CTMs influences the dynamics of state–civil society relations in Nigeria. The stratified random sampling was used to select 205 programme officers of civil society organizations (CSOs), while purposive sampling was used to select 29 executive directors of CSOs for in-depth interviews. The descriptive statistics and content analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings show that the capacity of CSOs to contribute to CTM is shaped by the politics that places CSOs in the service of the government. Their positioning helps establish an environment of conviviality in which CSOs advance the interest of the state in the context of counter-terrorism, and in turn, the state engages and endorses CSOs. The paper argues that CTMs are increasingly impinging on the operations of CSOs in Nigeria, thus constraining the autonomous space that defines CSOs that lie at the intersection of state and society.

The size variation of the nonprofit sector across geographic locations has attracted substantial scholarly attention. One dominant theory exploring this issue is Weisbrod’s demand heterogeneity hypothesis which suggests that the nonprofit sector size in a locality is positively related to population heterogeneity of the area. However, empirical tests of Weisbrod’s hypothesis reach a very inconsistent conclusion. This study employs a meta-analysis to aggregate existing studies on the relationship between population heterogeneity and nonprofit sector size. The study finds a significant and positive association between the two variables, but the magnitude of the relationship is substantially small. Further, this relationship seems generalized across countries and is supported by both within-country and cross-country data and by different measurements of nonprofit sector size. In addition, population heterogeneity in terms of age, education, ethnicity, language, and religion supports the hypothesis better. Overall, although the demand heterogeneity hypothesis holds empirically, its explanatory power in predicting nonprofit sector size and growth might be less robust.

In contribution to current debates on the changing roles and responsibilities of civil society in welfare state arrangements, I examined the participation of various types of civil society organizations in national welfare policymaking in Sweden between 1958 and 2012. Drawing upon an extensive dataset of over 1400 civil society, state, and for-profit organizations, I tested three claims related to the role and responsibility of civil society in the governance of welfare: the changing balance between corporatist and welfare organizations, the shift from voice to service, and another shift from nonprofit organizations to FPOs. My results revealed weak but emerging trends aligned with changing patterns of corporatism and the marketization of Sweden’s welfare system. However, support for any shift from voice to service remains uncertain.

Within the field of international relations, scholarship supports the notion that international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) and foundations, as a part of transnational civil society, influence state policy and behaviors, while the causal effects of state influence on INGOs is less researched. By contrast, the co-constitutive roles of states and INGOs are well established in third-sector research. Seeking to extend these literatures and bring them into conversation more with one another, this article explores the process of state influence on INGOs and foundations in the context of China, a strong, resiliently authoritarian state. We argue that three strategic adaptations by INGOs emerge as a pragmatic response to operating within China’s authoritarian institutions, such as (1) learning to focus mostly on policymakers rather than citizens, (2) collaboration with local governments on policy experimentation as the primary advocacy method, and (3) the adoption of strategies to hedge against potential risks of operating without a protected legal status, such as only collaborating with the grassroots NGOs properly registered with state authorities. In some cases, these adaptations catalyzed larger organizational changes. Our findings indicate that socialization processes can affect both INGOs and states, and thus serve to highlight the difficult trade-offs faced by INGOs engaging strong authoritarian governments such as China. Further, they suggest that, in a world of seemingly resurgent authoritarian governance, restricting legal and policy space for INGOs may be moot, since INGOs working inside these states are influenced to comply with domestic rules, norms, and practices.

The monograph State of Exchange: Migrant NGOs and the Chinese Government by Jennifer Y. H. Hsu presents a comprehensive analysis of state–society relations in China. The book’s purpose is to examine how the state and NGOs in China transform each other. Migrant NGOs in Beijing and Shanghai serve as cases to demonstrate, on the one hand, how NGOs engage with central and local authorities and, on the other hand, how authorities are involved with NGOs. The development and application of a multidisciplinary and dynamic concept for the analysis—the layers and spaces framework—is exemplary and introduces a new framework for research on state–society relations.