Partnering with Civil Society Organizations. The role of volunteers and not for profit organizations in the provision of welfare services

The purpose of this article is to make a distinctive contribution to the emergence of a new form of partnership between municipalities and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). These collaborations are articulated at the border between the public and the society as well as between the formal and the informal economy. We revise the Esping-Andersen paradigm about the three main welfare regimes, where the welfare state, the family and the market are seen as three sources of managing social risks (Esping-Andersen, 1999), and we illustrate how the collaboration between CSOs and local administrations might improve the connection between the state and the citizens. In the perspective of the Third Sector Reform, which is actually underway in Italy, the hybridization of different forms of organizations could bring innovative solutions to the new real social risks of the communities. Specifically, this form of collaboration between local public administrations and the CSOs is part of the theme of volunteering and social citizenship, which advocates citizens’ empowerment in the production of social welfare and services of general interest. This area of collaboration is positioned between social rights and social obligations and provides a contribution that fosters the redistributive capacity of the public sphere through a participatory policy making.