Crossing the Boundaries between ‘Third Sector’ and State: life-work histories from the Philippines, Bangladesh and the UK

Abstract The three-sector model—encompassing the private, public and non-governmental or ‘third’ sectors—is important to much of the research that is undertaken on development policy. While it may be analytically convenient to separate the three sectors, the realities are more complex. Non-governmental actors and government/public sector agencies are linked in potentially important (though often far from visible) ways via personal relationships, resource flows and informal transactions. This paper seeks to understand these links by studying the ‘life-work histories’ of individuals who have operated in both the government and third sector. Two main types of such boundary crossing are identified: ‘consecutive’, in which a person moves from one sector to the other in order to take up a new position, and ‘extensive’,…