November 2, 2000 | Read Time: 1 minute
Growing Civil Society: From Nonprofit Sector to Third Space
by Jon Van Til
To fill the vacuum created as businesses, government, nonprofit organizations, and families and communities operate separately from one another, the author introduces the concept of “third space.”
Jon Van Til, a professor of urban studies and community planning at Rutgers University’s Camden, N.J., campus, defines third space as something that is not independent of government and the corporate world but that “exists in dynamic interdependence with, and within, such basic societal institutions.” It is, he explains, “where individuals and organizations come together to reflect and act to create the community and society they need.” For-profit businesses that exist not to make money but to satisfy a community’s needs, he writes, are a perfect example of the institutions that make up the third space: They blur the line between charity and business and in the process contribute to the betterment of society.
Throughout the third space Mr. Van Til sees “expressions of caring and humanity, services to persons in need, and calls to action aimed at righting a wide range of problems and injustices.”
Publisher: Indiana University Press, Order Department, 601 North Morton Street, Bloomington, Ind. 47404-3797; (812) 855-6804 or (800) 842-6796; fax (812) 855-7931; http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress; 241 pages; $34.95; I.S.B.N. 0-253-33715-1.
