This open access book unveils the hidden elite of Italy's third sector, offering a rare glimpse into the lives and minds of civil society's most influential leaders. By illuminating the dynamics of Italy's third sector elite, it reshapes our understanding of civil society's role in modern democracies.

1. Introduction.- 2. Civil society and elites in Italy.- 3. A study of civil society elites in Europe.- 4. The organisational landscape.- 5. The profile of the Italian civil society elite.- 6. Professionalisation and elitisation.- 7. Career trajectories and Europeanisation.- 8. The view of power and status.- 9. A kaleidoscope of power, tradition, and transformation.

This open access book unveils the hidden elite of Italy's third sector, offering a rare glimpse into the lives and minds of civil society's most influential leaders. Bridging elite and civil society studies, it presents pioneering research on these powerful yet understudied figures. Through in-depth analysis, the chapters reveal surprising insights about the elite's composition, attitudes, career trajectories, and views on power. Essential reading for scholars of democracy, civil society, and social policy, this volume challenges conventional wisdom about leadership in the nonprofit world. By illuminating the dynamics of Italy's third sector elite, it reshapes our understanding of civil society's role in modern democracies.   Cecilia Santilli is a researcher in Socio-anthropology at the School of Social Work at Lund University, Sweden. Her primary research interests include civil society, politics, and policies from a comparative perspective. She is currently involved in a research project examining the impact of populism on civil society. Roberto Scaramuzzino is Associate Professor of Social Work at Lund University, Sweden. His main research interests are civil society and its functions in welfare societies and for migrant integration. He is currently leading a research project about civil society and populism, focusing on how the rise to power of populist parties affects state–civil society relations.

This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access Combines civil society studies and elite studies Presents results from a unique dataset based on an elite survey targeting civil society leaders. Presents a comparative perspective which analyses the Italian context in a European framework.

GPSR Compliance The European Union's (EU) General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) is a set of rules that requires consumer products to be safe and our obligations to ensure this. If you have any concerns about our products you can contact us on ProductSafety@springernature.com. In case Publisher is established outside the EU, the EU authorized representative is: Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH Europaplatz 3 69115 Heidelberg, Germany ProductSafety@springernature.com

Open Access This book is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this book are included in the book's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the book's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.