Abstract

This article deals with the debate on the hybridization of the Third sector that has involved the international literature in the last two decades and its impact on the Italian literature. Here are described the different terms usually used to define and analyse the hybridization (marketization, enterpreneurialization, professionalization, bureaucratization, etc.). These concepts are often analysed in terms of opportunity or risk, questioning whether they are normal or pathological phenomena and investigating what the practical relevance of the term is. Starting from these coordinates, it is evident that the concept of hybridization, subsequent to the construction of an ideal type of Third sector, is functional to maintain the autonomy of the sector from the other spheres. The different literatures that deal with this debate are strongly value-oriented and still looking for a mature formulation of a hybridization theory