Social associations: a reality in search of conceptualisation and visualisation

Abstract

Although rarely contemplated by social science, social associations constitute emergent forms inside the third sector’s «organizational galaxy». This article attempts to shed light on this reality by first defining the concept of social association itself, placing special emphasis on the autonomy of these associations and on the dynamics and processes they generate. We then make an approach to the European context in which social associations insert themselves, with structural and cultural factors that influence their development. As original associative forms, they differ from other subjects in the private and social arena depending on their purpose, fields and types of intervention, resources, internal organization and associative culture, and all of these aspects will be analysed in this article.