Event Details

Maison Des Sciences Économiques
106-112 Boulevard de l’Hopital,
Paris, France
Friday, June 20
2:00pm – 5:00pm

Event Description

French third sector and public policy stakeholders discussed third sector impact, third sector definitions and third sector development with French TSI members Nadine Richez-Battesti and Francesca Petrella.

Thirteen people attended the meeting, even though it was difficult to come to Paris because of an important train strike. However, different representatives from third sector organisations were present : representatives from umbrella organisations in the social economy, large national and regional associations from the voluntary sector, cooperatives, foundations, and academic researchers. Such diversity was very useful to discuss a large range of third sector impacts.

Programme of the meeting

Part I General introduction : TSI project: themes, objectives, interaction with stakeholders.

Part II Discussing impacts : Understanding impacts on different dimensions. How can these be measured? What are the priorities?

Part III Stakeholders : Integrating research, practice and policy: how can we collaborate.

Summary

After a collective discussion,  the following short list of impacts and key-words :

  • build trust in the future and in the institutions (in a context of mistrust);
  • promote democratic processes within the organization and in society (participation rate to elections, debate on evaluation criteria, being part of the public place, …);
  • proximity, local anchorage and networks to mobilize territorial resources and reinvest them in the territory;
  • the validation (recognition and legitimacy) of other economic models and circuits (that can lead to the transformation of the current ones): circular economy, « functionality » economy, short agricultural production circuits … ;
  • higher work satisfaction of employees of third sector organizations (as found by many research studies) even though their working conditions are often less favorable than in public or for-profit private organizations ;
  • their contribution to general interest (in relation with the issue of social services of general interest at European level).

You can download the event report in English and French, the PowerPoint presentation as PDF and the event poster announcement.