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The French Nonprofit Sector
A Literature Review
Series: - Brill Research Perspectives in Humanities and Social Sciences, Volume: 13
- Voluntaristics Review, Volume: 13
This article deals with the literature on the French nonprofit sector (NPS). A preliminary part is devoted to presenting and discussing the characteristics that shape the approaches to this sector in France. We stress the strong influence of legal categories on the sectorâs definition and, in this context, the importance of the status inherited from the 1901 Act on contracts of association. This raises a problem for a more analytical approach to the sector, because the diversity of the nonprofit organizations (NPOs) regulated under this Act risks being overshadowed. In this first part, we also underline the primacy accorded in France to the concept of the social economy, which has today become the social and solidarity economy (SSE), over that of the nonprofit sector.
In the second part, the article outlines some landmarks in the history of the French NPS. French NPOs were for many years objects of suspicion, arbitrariness and repression on the part of the public authorities and this persisted until the 1901 legislation on contracts of association was enacted. However, this hostile context did not prevent the sector from having a richer existence than is sometimes admitted.
This literature review also focuses on empirical studies of the sector, placing a particular emphasis on the more recent ones. These French studies basically adopt two types of approach. The first is concerned essentially with the NPOs and focuses its attention on their economic importance, whether measured in terms of financial resources, employment, or, less frequently, added value. The second approach investigates the kinds of individual participation the sector engenders by examining the various forms it takes, such as membership of NPOs or voluntary work.
This review ends with the analysis of the challenges that NPS faces in a context characterized by the increasing constraints on public funding, changes in the nature of such funding with a substitution of contracts for subsidies, an increased competition among NPOs as well as between NPOs and for-profit enterprises. The article concludes that, despite the advances in research on the French NPS, some aspectsâlike formal volunteering and the role of voluntary associationsâare still understudied, while othersâlike informal groups and informal volunteeringâare almost totally ignored.
In the second part, the article outlines some landmarks in the history of the French NPS. French NPOs were for many years objects of suspicion, arbitrariness and repression on the part of the public authorities and this persisted until the 1901 legislation on contracts of association was enacted. However, this hostile context did not prevent the sector from having a richer existence than is sometimes admitted.
This literature review also focuses on empirical studies of the sector, placing a particular emphasis on the more recent ones. These French studies basically adopt two types of approach. The first is concerned essentially with the NPOs and focuses its attention on their economic importance, whether measured in terms of financial resources, employment, or, less frequently, added value. The second approach investigates the kinds of individual participation the sector engenders by examining the various forms it takes, such as membership of NPOs or voluntary work.
This review ends with the analysis of the challenges that NPS faces in a context characterized by the increasing constraints on public funding, changes in the nature of such funding with a substitution of contracts for subsidies, an increased competition among NPOs as well as between NPOs and for-profit enterprises. The article concludes that, despite the advances in research on the French NPS, some aspectsâlike formal volunteering and the role of voluntary associationsâare still understudied, while othersâlike informal groups and informal volunteeringâare almost totally ignored.
Laura Nirello is postdoctoral researcher at Centre Lillois dâEtudes et de Recherches Sociologiques et EconomiquesâCLERSE (Lille Sociological and Economic Studies and Research Centre) and at the Direction de la Recherche, des Etudes, de lâEvaluation et des StatistiquesâDREES (Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation, and Statistics), a department of the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. Email: laura.nirello@orange.fr
Lionel Prouteau is Emeritus Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Nantes. He is member of the Laboratoire dâéconomie et de management de Nantes-AtlantiqueâLEMNA (Nantes-Atlantique Economics and Management Research Laboratory). Email: lionel.prouteau@univ-nantes.fr
Lionel Prouteau is Emeritus Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Nantes. He is member of the Laboratoire dâéconomie et de management de Nantes-AtlantiqueâLEMNA (Nantes-Atlantique Economics and Management Research Laboratory). Email: lionel.prouteau@univ-nantes.fr
âThe recent book titled âThe French Nonproï¬t Sectorâ written by Laura Nirello and Lionel Prouteau is an important contribution to the French nonproï¬t sector (NPS)âits history, changing social and legal status, dynamics of freedom, economic milieu and future prospects are analysed with ample existing literatures and empirical studies. Overall, this is an important resource for understanding the French nonproï¬t sector, its historicity with interesting dynamics of state, religion and market.â
â Pradeep Kumar, Indira Gandhi National Open University, in International Society for Third-Sector Research, 31 July 2019 (online)
â Pradeep Kumar, Indira Gandhi National Open University, in International Society for Third-Sector Research, 31 July 2019 (online)
Editorâs Introduction
Author Biographies
The French Nonprofit Sector: A Literature Review
âAbstract
âKeywords
âIntroduction
â1âThe Importance of the Legal Approach to Defining French NPOs
â2âThe French NPS: A Belated Freedom
â3âEmpirical Approaches to the French NPS
â4âWhat Prospects for the French NPS? âConclusion
âBibliography
Author Biographies
The French Nonprofit Sector: A Literature Review
âAbstract
âKeywords
âIntroduction
â1âThe Importance of the Legal Approach to Defining French NPOs
â2âThe French NPS: A Belated Freedom
â3âEmpirical Approaches to the French NPS
â4âWhat Prospects for the French NPS? âConclusion
âBibliography
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