EDITORIAL[editar]

The current issue, 9, of the Spanish Journal of the Third Sector is a regular issue of the year 2008, since readers can access it not only in Spanish. But, at the same time, it is also a special issue, in English, in order to reach the academic world and international experts in a series of papers that allow for better insight into the Journal as it is today, which, as is known, is in its third year of progress. It is an open issue, regarding topics in which there are papers concerning the three outlooks of the Journal, the Spanish perspective, the European perspective and the Latin-American perspective, the two latter ones being dealt with in the Panorama section. On the other hand, of the five papers, three have been published in earlier issues of the Journal (Luis Aranguren, Darío Rodríguez and Soledad Quezada and Serge Paugam); the new work is by Vicente Marbán and Rodríguez Cabrero and Van der Ploeg.

The Contributions section has three articles. First, A Panoramic View of the Social Third Sector in Spain: Environment, Development, Social Research and Challenges, by Vicente Marbán and Gregorio Rodríguez Cabrero, which provides the reader with a recent historical portrait of social action NGO’s , their development, basic challenges and progress in the social research in this area whose growth has walked hand-in-hand to the development of the Welfare State in Spain.

The second paper, by Luis Aranguren, analyses the basic problems in the training of managers and staff in the Third Sector. In his paper, Another Training is Possible, he holds that training in the Third Sector, especially the Social Third Sector, should contribute to the obtaining of three goals at the same time: change in mentality, change and improvements in internal organization and changes in the context of a global, complex world with greater social risks. Internal quality and external transformation are two variables linked to training in the Third Sector.

Finally, the third paper has been produced by Serge Paugam, How does Poverty appear in European Societies Today? This paper analyses the social nature of poverty in Welfare States in the European Union, both in its quantitative dimension as well as, and primarily, qualitatively. Social and institutional construction of poverty from its historical roots in social assistance, the typology of poverty (inherited, reproducible, new poverty) as well as its perception by the poor people themselves are the object of study in a reality where NGO’s have an important role of social intervention.

The Panorama section includes two papers. First an article by Professor Van der Ploeg, The Legal Regulations of the Third Sector in Europe, which analyses the legal framework for this sector, private, volunteer and non-distributor of benefits (not including co-operatives), the differences in an eleven country sample and the difficulties around harmonization in the general admitted context of recognizing the legal entity of NGO’s and equal treatment for all. An admittedly diverse world searching for ways for a certain legal harmonization.

The second paper, by Darío Rodríguez Mansilla and Soledad Quezada y Menares, (Chile): Culture in Organizations in the Chilean Third Sector, analyses the concept of organizational culture as a result of the tradition and memory of  NGO’s, of their achievements and difficulties. There are two different social entities, altruistic and mutualities and the organizational change is analyzed from four case types or significant organizations in Chile which have tried to integrate their missions and objectives along with a professional change with a view to social and economic efficiency in the Chilean Third Sector.

In the section Notes and Contributions we have included a query to four European NGO networks, which have been asked for their opinion on the articulation of the Third Sector in Europe with regards to the developing of social policies in the EU. The organizations were: EAPN, AGE, SEE and EDF, widespread organizations and with a recognized role in the articulation of volunteer organizations in the European social field.

We have also included in this issue both abstracts and key words of the articles published in the Journal since its inception as well as a Directory of Social Organizations in the Social Third Sector in Spain. The purpose of this directory is to allow the foreign reader to have a selective, but quite comprehensive, map of the world of social organizations in Spain, establishing a difference between the ones with a general scope of action and those devoted to specific sectors or activities. A website has been included for all of them.

In closing, Issue 9 ends with an extensive bibliographical selection of national and foreign papers referring back to the last five years.