Il volontariato può sostenere lo sviluppo? Riflessioni metodologiche per la costruzione di un frame work teorico

The main question of this paper is to investigate if and how the voluntary sector – as an institutional agent of the third sector - matters for the local development path. By adopting a multimensional and relational approach to the development, the paper surveys, compares and overlaps three different strands of literature, i.e. models of heterogeneous preferences, social capital theory and new institutional economics. The idea is to suggest a framework on this role either in the most advanced economies or in the entrapped regions.