The major objective of this paper is to document the apparently divergent evolutions and acknowledgement of the third sector and to lay the foundations for a better understanding of the evolving place, profiles and roles of TSOs in current European economies.
In order to do so, members of the EMES European Research Network from thirteen EU countries have provided a brief overview of the images and recent trends of the third sector in their respective national contexts. These country contributions represent the major part of the present study but, on the basis of those short and precise descriptions, we first try to point out the convergent features which may contribute to a better and more integrated knowledge of the third sector, while not ignoring the strong diversity of national specificities.
