Abstract
In recent years, the promotion of "New Public" by the government has given significant new roles to non-profit organizations (NPO) through public-private partnerships in social welfare, which are not only suppliers for social services but also resolvers of social issues and innovators of reform of social systems. This article examines the social function of NPOs in the context of the public sphere for this "New Public". By applying general concepts including "advocacy", "participation & inclusion" and so on, three concepts are defined: (1) "the recovery of the welfare world"; (2) the formation of "the counter-public sphere" ; and (3) the construction of "civil professionalism", which hold the possibility of core-competence in NPOs due to the reason that competitors have difficulties with imitation. However, in balancing the accomplishments of service supply functions and social functions, it is expected that NPOs face the most conflict between the stakeholders of organizations, and it is thought that equal government-private relationships and the problem of autonomy will be put into focus more clearly in future. Finally, in this paper, the author touched on the debate regarding social auditing as a method of evaluating social function.
