Private Action and the Public Good

SSRC Program Links

  • Philanthropy and the Nonprofit Sector (completed program); related SSRC Book: Hammack, David C., and Steven Heydemann, eds. 2009. Globalization, Philanthropy, and Civil Society: Projecting Institutional Logics Abroad. Bloomington (IN): University of Indiana Press.

This section brings together literature on private action for the public good.

Nonprofit Sector

Literature on the nonprofit sector, including philanthropy, and the public good.

  • DiMaggio, Paul, and Helmut K. Anheier. 1990. “The Sociology of Nonprofit Organizations and Sectors.” Annual Review of Sociology 16:137-159.
  • Goodin, Robert E. 2003. “Democratic Accountability: The Distinctiveness of the Third Sector.” European Journal of Sociology 44:359-396.
  • Hammack, David C., and Steven Heydemann, eds. 2009. Globalization, Philanthropy, and Civil Society: Projecting Institutional Logics Abroad. Bloomington (IN): University of Indiana Press.
  • Powell, Walter W., and Elisabeth C. Clemens, eds. 1998. Private Action and the Public Good. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.
  • Powell, Walter W., and Richard Steinberg, eds. 2006. The Nonprofit Sector: A Research Handbook. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.

Professionalism

Literature on private action for the public good resulting from the institutionalized inherent logics of professionalism and professional education (law, engineering, clergy, medicine, nursing, etc.).

  • Crompton, Rosemary. 1990. “Professions in the Current Context.” Work, Employment & Society 4:147-166. On the two, apparently conflicting, perspectives of professions as uniquely ethical occupations, regulated by the ideal of professionalism, versus professions as powerful groups who have masked their pursuit of self-interest behind essentially spurious ethical codes.
  • Krause, Elliott A. 1999. Death of the Guilds: Professions, States, and the Advance of Capitalism, 1930 to the Present. New Haven (CT): Yale University Press.
  • Marshall, Thomas H. 1939. “The Recent History of Professionalism in Relation to Social Structure and Social Policy.” Canadian Journal of Economics and Political Science 5:325-340.
  • Merton, Robert K., and Thomas F. Gieryn. 1982. “Institutionalized Altruism: The Case of the Professions.” Pp. 109-133 in Social Research and the Practicing Professions. Lanham (MD): University Press of America. Online
  • Saks, Mike. 1995. Professions and the Public Interest: Medical Power, Altruism and Alternative Medicine. London: Routledge.
  • Sullivan, William M. 2005. Work and Integrity: The Crisis and Promise of Professionalism in America. 2nd Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

More To Come