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Recent years have seen a move from ‘government to governance’which has involved new actors alongside the state in governing. The significance of this change has been flagged up in the introduction to this book and in Chapter 4. Many commentators have been critical of these new arrangements, suggesting that third sector organizations (TSOs) can easily become co-opted onto state agendas through the demands on their time and resources and through ‘rules of the game’that are dictated by the state.

Our own research1 suggests that there may be a more complex story to be told. In it we set out to explore the experience of non-governmental actors in what we called ‘new governance spaces’, the new partnerships and other forums into which TSOs have been invited to participate over recent years. We wanted to identify the tensions and opportunities in these ‘spaces’ and explore how non-governmental actors …