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The Social Life of Non-profit and Third Sector in the Middle East

The chapter reconstructs the moments and turning points in which the themes of “not-for-profit” and “third sector” emerge as a basis for the creation of new institutions and new types of social research, both in the Western and Middle Eastern contexts. Such institutions are connected to the (re-)emergence of the theme of civil society in the 1990s in Middle Eastern studies and request a critical reappraisal since the blooming of these concepts was deeply connected to the spread of neoliberal ideology and practices. The chapter maps the various origins of civil society, some in Arab philosophy, and the recent trends in the use of these concepts in the Middle East as well as in academic and professional literature dedicated to the third sector. It shows how a rich internal debate around civil society has existed within the Middle East itself, disproving theories that civil society is only a “Western” concept or practice. The chapter finally argues that, like civil society, the third sector entails a zone of shadow and exclusions.