A path-breaking study of organizational dynamics in community movements and in small, local, nonprofit organization

Familiar organizational theories often do not fit comfortably when applied to community-level associations or small, local, nonprofit organizations. In Smallville, Carl Milofsky empirically and theoretically studies the organizational dynamics involved in this common American model. Organizations functioning within a community are usually treated as separate units, but when they all exist in the same place and tend to be made up of the same people who are living out different aspects of their identities in various settings, a new analytical paradigm is required. Milofsky’s study culminates in the formulation of an innovative way of understanding this phenomenon—an essential, pioneering theory of “transorganizations.”

CARL MILOFSKY is Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Bucknell University. He is a former editor of Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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